Of Books and Ropes and Chains
by I He She
Summary: A girl suffering from mental disorder. A girl who is running from her biggest mistake. And a librarian who made a deal with the devil -or maybe it was god. Be it by chance or by fate, the three of them meet, in a place where the laws of the world aren't as strict. And where books apparently can't do their job of keeping whatever they contain inside them, rather than letting it out.
1. The Great Library

**The Great Library**

* * *

"... why?"

"I think you might use some help every now and then. And some company as well"

"As appreciated as help would be, company is among the last of my concerns, milady"

"Don't worry and let me handle it" she replied, kind of ignoring half of what he had just said "I'll look for one or two assistants. Just make sure the rooms here aren't a mess for when they arrive"

"As you wish"

He didn't really have a say, nor did he really care. It's not like he owned the place after all. He was just the librarian.

"By the way, what happened to your helmet? And the chain you usually wear, too"

"They broke ten days ago"

* * *

A few weeks later, a bit outside the outskirts of the city, Ara was sitting alone on a bench on the roadside, humming softly a tune to herself. Next to her were a total of five leather suitcases: two were quite long and narrow, and two, one being one of the long ones, were dyied dark orange. After a few minutes, an open wagon drawn by two horses arrived, stopping in front of the bench. The carman was an old-looking man, probably a bit over seventy years old, just like she had been told he'd be. That wagon was the only one which stopped where she needed to go, or at least that's what they told her. Chances were the driver was deaf, since he didn't give any sign of having heard Ara greeting him. She shrugged it off and placed her luggages on the wagon before getting on herself. The driver looked back to make sure she was on, then made the horses start moving.

The weather was nice, sunny and warm. An ordinary spring day. Ara kept humming. She was a bit excited: she had finally gotten a job, and a full-time one at that. Truth be told, there were a couple of things which seemed a bit off. Mostly, the fact that the job had been presented as one which gets quite dangerous from time to time. But then again, what's the worst that could happen in a library? ... probably something bad enough to warrant a life insurance, since it had been mentioned in the contract. But then again, some action every once in a while wasn't bad.

The first hour of journey was actually quite boring, and Ara did nothing but look at the landscape: trees, an hourse every here and there, cultivated fields, sometimes a flock of birds flying in the sky. After reaching the city, trees got replaced by more houses, and the street, which went from a dirt track to an actual paved road, got more crowded. People going back and forth, in and out of shops and other buildings, another wagon traveling next to hers every now and then, but that was that. The carman was keeping away from the main roads, which speeded up the journey a bit since those were always increbily crowded. And noisy. At some point, he stopped in front of a bench, in a small and almost empty road. There, a girl was sitting on an empty bench, a few luggages resting beside her. She was probably the same age of Ara, if not a bit older. She also was a bit taller than her, but Ara herself was a bit short so that was nothing strange. The girl had blonde hair reaching her shoulders, with a long hairpin on the back of her head from which a rather long, brown cloth tape was hanging, and deep blue eyes. The hairpin was shaped similar to a golden rose. She was wearing the upper half of a white kimono, yellow on the helms, and whose sleeves were dyied orange and green around the wrists. The large, blue sash with which the kimon was tied around her waist was partially covered by a black tape, dyied dark red on the edges and tied in a ribbon right beneath her breast, and on said ribbon was a round, metal ornament, which was faintly glowing with a blue light at the centre. Her brown skirt, which almost reached her knees, had a blue area in the middle, and was decorated with golden motifs and white frills. On the back of her waist was a butterfly-shaped blue ribbon, a bit larger than her chest. She was wearing white shoes, which looked like they were made of fabric and where decorated with golden and dark red motifs. Actually, they looked more like clothes than actual shoes, since they seemed to be kept in place by a black string around her ankles and they were quite high and large. Beneath them, she wore black socks. Ara also noticed a small, black shoulder plate on her left shoulder. The two girls glanced at each other for a moment, then the blonde stood up and began bringing her suitcases on the wagon. Ara helped her, tough they weren't that heavy. The blue-eyed girl then took a seat in front of Ara. Once again, the old driver looked back before commanding the horses to move.

"I'm Ara" she introduced herself, offering her hand "Ara Haan"

"Rose" the blonde replied, shaking hands with her "Just Rose"

The blonde looked at Ara, as if to study her. She was wearing a large, white and orange coat, which she kept open. Underneath, Rose could see a short, tight dress, white on the front and black on the sides, maybe on the back as well, which emphasized her rather large bust, as well as covering a bit her short, orange skirt. A bit too short, maybe. She wore a pantyhose and two high wedges, black and orange, and a pair of very large but short, white socks. Her neck was completely uncovered, and Rose guessed the same was for her shoulders and arms, since she had seen a few similar outfits before and they all had nothing covering those areas. Ara did wear a pair of white, tight gloves tough, which almost reached her elbows. They left her hands exposed, though, so maybe gloves wasn't ever the right term. On her black hair, long enough to reach he knees, she kept an hairpin shaped like an arrow, a white strand of cloth hanging from it. Two strands of hair were made into a braid which was tied behind her head, while almost all the rest of her hair were kept togheter by a big, orange, spherical clip, near the tip of her hair. A bit of her hair fell on her forehead and down on her shoulders. Also, she had an incredible cowlick, which went straight up from her forehead and then bent down to her left.

"You're moving?" Rose asked, looking at Aras' luggages.

"Well, kind of. Almost. Pretty much? Well, you're doing so too I guess"

"More or less. I got a job which is 24/7. I'll have to stay there all the time, which is kinda like moving after all, but that's better than having to pay a rent"

"Wait, me too. What job were you hired for?"

"Assistant librarian"

"... you know, we might be coworkers"

"Oh, really? Was the one who talked to you about this job a pale girl with silvery hair and a... glass orb on her forehead? Who introduce herself as Eve?"

"Yes, that's totally her. Guess we're really coworkers. Let's get along well then, shall we?"

"Sure"

The wagon then took a small, secondary, road, too thin for two carriage to travel side by side, and stopped halfway trough it. The carman, for the first time, spoke.

"We've arrived, passengers" he said, with the voice you would expect from someone of his age. It did sound a bit too crackly tough.

They were in front of a rather small, despite being two stories high, building. Through the two shoop windows were visible a large amount of books, nothing special for a library. The two windows on the upper floor were covered by curtains. Ara and Rose came down from the wagon and took down their luggage. The old man slowly waved his hand at them before leaving. The road was actually devoid of people other than them. Ara stood there for a moment, while Rose knocked at the door. From inside, a voice they both recognized told them to come in. They walked inside, carrying their suitcases. The place was... different from what both of them had imagined. A lot. It was a bit smaller than it seemed to be from the outside, and it was filled to the brim with every possible kind of book, all placed without an order all over the room. Maybe because they were too many to fit into the shelves. Even the stairs for the upper floor were covered in books, almost to the point of being unusable. It almost looked like they'd been abandoned there. But, as messy as the place was, it was perfectly clean. There were, oddly enough, two windows on the wall opposite to the front one, both covered by curtains. At first Ara thought that to be the warehouse, but then she realized the building wasn't big enough for there to be another room, at least not one big enough to be used as a storehouse. Sitting behind the counter was the girl who had talked to them about that job. Just like the last time they saw her, they found her pale skin and long, silvery hair striking. She had amber eyes, two blue marks below them, and an overall stunning figure, enhanced by her black, tight clothes, which covered her while leaving not too much to the imagination, especially her short skirt. Her legs were covered by long stockings tough. Where her ears were supposed to be were, instead, two mechanical, ear-like protuberances. And in her forehead was a glass-looking, blue orb. She was skimming trough the pages of a large book when they walked in, which she then closed and placed on the counter - which, by the way, was covered by books just like the floor and everything else, chairs included- before getting up.

"I was waiting for you" she said, then, noticing the look in their faces, said "is something wrong?"

"Ah, no, it's just..."

"Oh, sure. This is not the actual library. That's what you were wondering, I guess. I did talk about a really big library, and with apartments, didn't I? The real one is here" she said as she turned around, gesturing them to follow.

Ara and Rose exchanged a brief glance before walking to Eve, who was standing in front of an heavy-looking wooden door.

"This is the where you'll be working" she said as she easily opened the gateway.

What Ara and Rose saw was... definitely unexpected. It definitively was a library, but... first of all, it was too large. Simply too large. The other end of the place was so far away it almost didn't even look like a closed space, and the side walls weren't any closer one to the other. Actually, hadn't it been for the ceiling, they would have thought to be outside, since there was also sunlight inside there, as well as a soft breeze. There were around fifteen floors, each with stairs to move from one to the other, and none of them covered more than a relatively small area on the edge of the library: the ceiling was visible from most of the ground floor. The bookshelves were noticeably big, at least seven meters high and thirty meters long, each filled to the brim, and most of them had a wooden ladder laid near one of the two end. And then there were the trees. Some were rather small, but others were far taller than the shelves, even up to more than three times their height. Some where even growing from the walls, with varying degree of tilt . Yet they somehow seemed to fit perfectly in, either not touching the bookshelves or growing around them without actually covering the books. In the middle of the library was an incredibly large tree whose foliage reached the ceiling. On its branches, which reached each of the library's floors and were large enough for people to use them as small roads, they could see small bookshelves. There was also a regular net of intertwined passageways, linking opposite sides of the upper floors together. Also, they could see at least half a dozen waterfalls, some small, some quite large, which meant there were also some rivers inside there. Around the great tree, placed like the corners of a triangle, were three spiral staircases, each reaching the roof and linked to a good number of passageways. And... it was raining. There were clouds, and it was raining. They were under a glass-made canopy so they weren't actually getting wet, but it was raining. Inside a building. Which was much, much larger inside than it was outside.

Ara was quite astonished. Rose... not so much.

"This is definitively better than the other room" she said "And of what I'd imagined, too. It's a bit weird, but I can see myself spending all my days inside here"

"That's wonderful. Now, if you don't mind, I have other business to attend to. The librarian should be here at any moment, so... goodbye" Eve said before leaving.

Ara and Rose brought their luggages under the canopy and closed the door.

"It's... bigger on the inside"

"It's definitively magic. I'd heard about these kind of places, but it's my first time seeing the real deal" replied Rose.

"Yeah, me too. It... kinda reminds you of a forest doesn't it?"

"Can't deny that"

Then they heard footsteps. Someone approached from their right, an umbrella made of transparent plastic shielding him from the rain, two more in his other hand. He was a rather tall man, with dark red eyes and spiky black hair reaching his shoulder. His white clothes, with black and red geometric decorative lines going over them, emphasize his slim figure. He was also wearing black gloves. The man stopped righ outside the canopy.

"I'm Oberon, the librarian. You two must be the assistants I've been told about" he introduced himself as he slightly bowed.

The two girls returned the bow and introduced themselves. Oberon handed them the two umbrellas.

"Ah, thank you"

He then looked at their suitcases.

"Do you need help with your luggage? You can also leave them there for now if you don't want them to get soaked"

"Mine are waterproof. What about yours, Ara?"

"Ah, mine too"

"Great. It'll take a couple of trips tough" answered Rose.

After saying that, they each grabbed one or two suitcases, then Oberon started moving, Ara and Rose walking behind him. They were staying close to the wall: there weren't many trees there, nor bookshelves. After a not-too-long walk they crossed a rather thick, glowing, orange line drawn on the floor, and soon after they reached what most likely was the apartment they'd been told about. An unusual building, rather wide and taller than a one-floor house but lower than a two-floors one, with a sloping roof whose pitch was facing the front of the house. There was only one door, under another glass canopy. Oberon led them inside, and they found themselves in an hallway, most likely as wide as the whole structure, with a total of fourteen windows, six on each of the long walls plus one each on the side walls. And there were three doors, four counting the one they had just crossed.

"Those are the rooms" Oberon said "There's hardly any difference between each one of them. The one on the right is adiacent to the wall of the library tough, so there are no windows on that side. And for the lighting, there's a switch next to the door, inside each room. And behind the rooms there's a shared kitchen. I was using the middle one, but if one of you wants that I can move to another one, it's not a problem"

"No, no, thank you but you don't have to bother about that" said Ara, who then turned to Rose "Which one do you want?"

"I'll take the right one" she replied.

Oberon left the two luggages he had in his hand down.

"I'll go take the others" he said.

"Thank you"

"I'll show you the library once it stop raining, so take your time. As for showing you the rest of this building and explaining what exactly our job is, that can come once you're done unpacking your belonging. I'll be in the kitchen in the meanwhile"

The girls nodded and went to their rooms. Ara opened the door and walked inside. It was perfectly cubical, and actually quite fancy, with wooden floor. There were eight windows, two on each wall, including the one shared with Oberon's room, each one with black curtains. Below every couple of windows was an inner balcony with a small drawer and two tables, each with four chairs, and an half landing stair leading to each balcony. The windows were at the right height for someone to sit on the chairs and look outside. There was a good number of wooden furnishings in the room. Actually, even excessive, at least for Ara's luggases. At least half of those wardrobes and drawers were sure to remain empty. There was also a large, empty bookshelf, a writing desk, a table with four chairs and a large mirror. Ara also noticed two doors in the corners of the room, one of which probably led to the bathroom. Oberon hadn't mentioned it, but there had to be one. The other one must had been the one to the kitchen. Light was provided by... candles. They were also unusually bright, given their size. There were some on the walls, and a chandelier was hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room. Ara tried to press the switch, and all the candles suddenly went out, leaving only the light coming from the windows to illuminate the place. She pushed the switch again, and the candles came back to life.

"That's pretty"

The most noticeable thing in the room, however, was the bed. A fancy canopy bed big enough for three, if not four, people to sleep in, with dark red courtains and five pillows, tough only one seemed to be a sleeping one.

"That's... well... probably a bit too large..."

She began unpacking her stuff, starting from the two long suitcases. Inside each one was a chiseled spear, both longer than Ara. One had an orange and white staff, with an ornament a bit larger than her fist on one end. The head of the weapon was made of a red, symmetrical, rather plain blade, with a supplementary one which allowed the weapon to be used also as an halberd. Ara laid it against a wall, then pulled out the other. The second one was a lot different. While the first one was a finely crafted weapon, the spear Ara was holding now was on a far better workmanship: the staff was of a deep black, and near the head it split into two dark orange parts which entwined with each other, joining at a bright orange orb, enclosed by a decoration which somewhat resembled an asymmetrical, golden flower. From there extended two blades, both black with dark shades of orange and red, finely worked in asymmetrical forms. On the other end of the pole was what could be described as a smaller and simpler, tough still finely crafted, version of the head of the spear. Ara carefully placed it near the first one, against the wall, and the way she held it almost suggested that wasn't even her weapon. After that, she hopened the third suitcase and began unpacking her stuff: pretty much nothing you wouldn't expect from a normal girl's luggage came out of there. Once she was done with that, she went back to the hallway. There were a few suitcases, two of which must had been hers. Oberon was nowhere to be seen, and the same went for Rose. Then again, she was most likely unpacking her stuff as well at the moment. Ara took her bags and brought them to her room. She placed the dark orange one near the black spear, without opening it, then turned to the last one and grabbed it. At the same time, someone knocked at the door.

"Ah, come in" she said as she opened the suitcase.

Rose walked in, holding a case almost identical to the one Ara had just opened, saying "I think you took one of my... yes, that's mine"

Ara looked at the content of the bag. Saying she was startled would be an understatement. Her gaze moved from the leather cuffs to the ropes to a collar to a pair of handcuffs to... several other things. Her face turned red as she shut the suitcase.

"Ah... ehr... that..."

"Yeah, that's mine" Rose casually repeated as she walked towards Ara "It's similar to yours, see? The luggage, I mean"

"Ah, right, sorry about that..."

"Don't worry, it's nothing" she replied as she took her luggage "I'll go back to my room now"

"Ehr, Rose... ?"

"Yes?"

"That bag..."

"Just an hobby of mine. Why, are you interested?" she asked, her lips forming a soft, playful smile.

"Ah, no, no! I'm not... I mean..." Ara panicked.

Rose laughed softly and ran her eyes over her for a brief moment, then turned around and left the room. Ara stood there for a few moments, then she realized she had yet to unpack her last suitcase. The most noticeable things she pulled out of there were a chessboard, a pen and a few books. One, in particular, was at least twice the size of all the others. She placed that one on the writing desk, while all the others were arranged on the bookshelf. The chessboard, instead, was placed on the table. She then sat at the desk and opened the large book. It had a black cover made of leather, and had no title. She skimmed trough the pages, all of which had been used to write, until she reached the first blank one. She looked at the last line of text.

 _I've prepared my luggages. They're the orange ones._

Ara took the pen and wrote something. A short sentence.

 _Please, don't cause any trouble._

She really wanted things to go smoothly at least on her first day of work.

* * *

At the same time, somewhere in the library, a book suddenly started trembling, and it began to slide out of place, until it fell off from the bookshelf, all the way to the floor. It then opened. The letters were glowing with a faint light. And then, something started to slowly crawl out of the book.

* * *

 **First chapter out.**


	2. Basics of the Job

**Basics of the Job**

Ara made sure she hadn't forgotten anything inside her suitcases, then walked to one of the doors and opened it. There she found the bathroom. Another cubical, rather large room, with white walls and ceiling. The floor had a decorative, blue pattern over it. Aside from the obvious toilet and shower, this one being comfortably big and with glassy, matt walls, there were a sink with a mirror right above it, a bathtub large enough for two or three people to comfortably be inside together, a drawer and a wardrobe identical to those in the main room, as well as an unusually high number of towel rods. The room was lit by a rather high number of candles, maybe because the two windows there were rather small. Overall, a rather pretty room.

Ara walked out and went to the other door. She opened it and found herself in an hallway, tough this one was much shorter than the one at the entrance of the house and had only two doors. Lit by candles just like the other rooms were, it had windows, but oddly enough they had been walled. She walked through the corridor and to the other door. Behind it she found a room roughly three time larger than hers. But that one looked like a mix of a few different chambers, mixed together: she could see elements of a kitchen, a parlor and a... ballroom? She wasn't really sure. There was some sort of order: what Ara guessed to be the dance floor, an irregular, wooden-floored area which spread randomly all over the room, with dark purple and red lines going over it without a real scheme, wasn't occupied by any furniture. The dining table, big enough for six or eight people to sit at, was close to what clearly was the kitchen, next to a short wall placed, for whatever reason, roughly in the middle of the room. The furnishings had the same style of those in her room, and was overabundant: a total of four tables, at least sixteen chairs, several drawers and, for some reason, five wardrobes. Not to mention the six, large bookshelves which, for some hidden motive, were hanging from the ceiling. There were twelve windows: three on the wall on Ara's left, and nine on the long wall opposing the one she had come from, on which was also another door. The other two had none, tough the right one could be explained by it being adiacent to the library's wall. Ara also noticed what seemed to be a large, black screen hosted on the wall, in the parlor-like area of the room, which was where most of the furnitures had been placed. In the middle of that area was a large table, with no chairs around it, and apparently made of black glass. The oddest thing, however, was the spiral staircase, placed almost in the middle of the room, close to the lone wall. Apparently, there was not only an attic but also a cellar.

... no, maybe there wasn't any order in that. The place wasn't messy enough to label it as chaotic, but it sure had a confusing set up.

Oberon was sitting on a chair, reading a book, but he stopped when Ara walked in. With the book still in his hand, he stood up and turned to her.

"Was the room to your liking? Most of the rooms in this building haven't been used for a few years, and I wasn't sure how to rearrange them"

"No, it was really nice"

 _You overdid it a bit with the furniture, I'd say, ... maybe more than a bit..._

"There's just one thing... why are there walled windows in the hallway?"

"Because blocking them with bars proved to be ineffective"

"... what?"

At the same time, Rose walked in. She gave a quick glance at the room, whistling softly, raised an eyebrow a little after seeing the hanged shelves, then turned to the two of them.

"The room looks like the one of an expensive hotel, it's far better than what I'd hoped for. Tough the amount of windows inside here and their placement leaves me puzzled"

"I agree that it's unusual. They were already there when I started working here tough" Oberon replied before looking at the staircase "There's only the basement and the loft you still have to see inside the house" he said as he walked to the stairs "Which one do you want to see first?"

The two girls looked at each other for a moment.

"The loft?" Rose asked to Ara.

"The loft is fine"

"The loft then"

And with that, Oberon led the two of them upstairs. The trapdoor leading to the attic seemed to be made of matt, grey glass. It slid open without a sound. The three of them found themselves in a large, tough somewhat low room, it probably wasn't two and a half meters high. After a brief look, they understood the loft was a single room, probably as large as all the rooms below put together. And it was... a garden. There was nothing but grass, bushes, short trees, flowers, creepers and even a few plants neither Ara nor Rose could actually identify. There were no candles there: light was provided entirely by the flowers and partly by a few trees and creepers, which were glowing. There were no windows, which seemed almost weird given how many there were pretty much everywhere else in the house.

"Pretty" Rose commented. She seemed quite hard to really impress.

"I've only come here three times, this room doesn't have a real function. Don't wander off on your own here. This place is much larger than the downstairs. The flowers also have some unusual properties, so it's better if you don't smell them"

Ara was about to ask how such a garden could be there, but then she remembered that they were in a gargantuan library inside an incredibly smaller building. And that it was raining indoor. No, a garden being there really wasn't that much weirder. So, after not asking that, she started walking in circle around the entrance, looking at the place. The grass was quite high, reaching her knees, except around the trapdoor, where it barely reached her ankles. There was a particular atmosphere there, maybe because the place wasn't completely lit, giving it a somewhat gloomy look. Each flower and tree glowed with a different shade of color tough, painting it's surroundings with his light. The creepers, instead, all emitted a dark blue light. Those which glowed, that is. Where more flowers or glowing trees were close together, the effect was almost hypnotic, since the intensity at which they shone wasn't costant but slightly intermittent. And then there were the scents. Several different fragrances mixed together, somehow in a perfectly harmonious way, each one fading into the next one in an oppressive succession of perfumes, a succession far too well-made to possibily be casual. It made her feel light, somewhat relaxed... maybe a bit dizzy.

 _You know, this place is'nt that bad._

Eun's voice brought her back to her senses.

"Please keep quiet" she whispered as she walked back to the trapdoor.

"Say, why do you never come here?" Rose asked at Oberon while partly covering her nose "Is it because of the scents?"

"I'm pretty much indifferent to them. I can filter them if I find them too strong, or I can simply deactivate my olfactory system"

"... what?" Ara and Rose asked almost in unison, but Oberon had already turned to the trapdoor.

"The basement isn't as sensorially impressive as the loft, so it will probably be quite disappointing compared to this room" he said as he walked downstairs.

The two girls followed him down the stair, closing the trapdoor above them. Ara didn't give it much importance, mainly because hearing Eun brought her mind to other thoughts, but Rose was curious about what Oberon said right before leaving the garden. But she decided to ask about that later. After a relatively long walk down the stair, roughly five minutes, they reached a large, wooden door. Oberon opened it, and they found themselves looking at a pitch black space. He briefly ran his hand over the wall right next to them and pushed a switch, lighting the candles inside. What they saw then was a quite small, depressingly empty nad plain, octagonal room with stone-grey wallsm, two candles placed on each one, and a total of eight simple, wooden doors, one being the one they came from. Compared to the rest of the building, that place seemed even emptier than it really was.

"This is, basically, the warehouse" Oberon said as he walked to the first door to their right. Ara and Rose followed him, a bit disappointed. What lied behind the door, however, was more in line both with the rest of the library and with what they had expected.

A very large room, probably larger than the whole building was when seen from outside, filled to the brim with every kind of furnishings imaginable, and a lot more whose function wasn't too clear. They were amassed together without a real order. The room was, probably, al least fifteen meters high, and most of the piles reached all the way to the ceiling. Unlike in the other rooms, the candles illuminating the place were slowly floating around, rather than being placed on the walls or in a chandelier. Taking something from there to the upper floor would have probably been impossible, since most of the furnitures there were too big to pass trough the door, let alone fit on the stairs.

"This is used to transport things upstairs" said Oberon while pointing to a small pedestral, probably made of marble, hosting a black book on its top. The cover had a small sentence written over it. "Keep the book empty when not in use"

"And... how do you use this to... carry a wardrobe?" asked Ara.

"This way" he replied as he took the book and walked to a large bed half-buried beneath a load of other furniture. He opened the book at a random page and placed it on the bed, which glowed for a moment. It then turned into a mass of floating, ink-made phrases, which flowed inside the book. Everything that was resting over the bed started to fall, but slowly, as if gravity in that room was almost non-existent. So slowly, it was hardly noticeable. Oberon then walked back to Ara and showed her the book. On the page he had opened it at was a long and almost maniacally detailed description of the bed. He then put his index and thumb on said text, grabbed it and dragged it out of the book, as if he was grabbing a bundle of strings. In his hand, the ink started to turn back into the bed. Handling it like it had no weight, he placed it back where it was, since the things which were resting on it had yet to fall more than a whole half-centimeter.

"That sure is handy" commented Rose.

"I guess I should stop expecting things to work normally inside here... wait, can you put even people inside there?"

"The books in the warehouse only work with inanimate objects. And those in the libraby only work with what's already inside them, so there's no risk of us ending up inside one. At least, that's what I've been told. I've never tested it"

"That's comforting..." she replied with a bit of irony mixed in her voice.

"You mean every book in this library works like the one you're holding now?" asked Rose.

"Not exactly. But that is basically what our job is about" Oberon said as he placed down the book and began walking back to the living room. Or kitchen. Or ballroom. Or whatever that room was.

"The books inside the house, with the only exception of the seven black books in the warehouse, aren't different from the ones you can find in every bookstore. As for the others, our work here is to make sure things go back to their book when they get out"

"What can come out of them?"

"Pretty much whatever you can think about. And more, depending on your imagination"

"And how do you send them back?"

"There are two ways. The first one is to simply kill whatever comes out: they're sent directly back to their book when they die outside. There's a technical explanation for that, but I'll leave that for another time, since it actually sounds more like philosophy than an actual explanation"

"Was Eve the one who told you that?"

"No, it was the owner of this place. You'll meet him sooner or later if you keep working here"

"I thought Eve was the owner"

"She's a friend of his"

"And what kind of person is this owner?" asked Ara.

Oberon paused for a moment before replying "I'm quite sure he's not a person"

"Why did I kind of expect that?" asked Rose with a not-so-concealed sarcasm in her voice.

"Going back to the subject, the second way is to make them touch the pages of the book. Not the cover, the pages. This method isn't really practical with particuarly large creatures, since an open books acts like a portal, and fitting something six meters tall inside a book is rather problematic. However, it's possible to convince them to go back on their own if they happen to be intelligent"

Oberon looked out of a window. It had stopped raining.

"There's a couple of things left, at least for what regards the fundaments"

He walked to one of the doors, the one which apparently led outside. There weren't many bookshelves in that area. Trees, on the other hand, were abundant, tough most of them were rather short, at least compared to those reaching the second, if not third, floor. But one stood definitely out. Placed at a dozen of meters from the house, it was around four meters tall, and it seemed to be made of ivory. There were no leaves on its branches. And there was a door in its trunk. Oberon walked up to it, and stopped right in front of the tree.

"That" he said, pointing to the ground. A bit farther than the tree was the same orange line they had crossed when going from the entrance of the library to the house "encircles a few areas inside the library, and it forms a barrier. Those who come from the books can't normally get past it"

"So, it's a sort of safe zone"

"Pretty much. There are actually some things which can get past it, but they're quite rare to encounter"

Having said that, Oberon opened the door on the tree. From inside came a bright light which prevented them from seeing what was inside. He walked in, and they followed him after a brief moment. They found themselves inside a large, cubical room made of crystals, trough which was visible the night sky. Everywhere. Even below their feet. Also, the room was filled with ivory-made trees.

 _Space doesn't mean much inside here, doesn't it..._ thought Ara.

"This place is the Linker, as it's been named. There are thirty-one trees here, and each one goes to a small safe zone in the library, placed at constant intervals. You can use these gates whenever you want. The one going to the house is easily recognizable, since it's the only one with no leaves"

Once he finished talking, the two girls both looked around for a while.

"There's just one thing that bothers me" said then Rose "How do you know if someone gets out of his book?"

"Either by running into it, or by having it run into us. The safe zone also works as a sort of attractor. As long as at least one person is inside, it send a mental call to the rest of the library. It's not as effective with inteligent beings tough"

"That's handy" commented Ara.

"And that's all"

Which wasn't really true. There were some things he hadn't told them yet. But he felt like saying anything more straight away would have been a bit excessive. Besides, most of what he hadn't told them either wasn't necessary to do the job, or wouldn't have been necessary for quite a while.

* * *

It had been a couple of hours since then. Ara was curious about the other six rooms in the warehouse, so she had gone back there. The first one she examined was as large as the one Oberon had showed them, but was filled with books, placed in alphabetical order and divided by argument, inside stone-made shelves. She had wandered around inside there for at least an hour, and found out most of the sections were about things which sounded completely crazy, or simply didn't make sense at all. There was also a fiction section tough. After that, she had gone to the third room from the right, which wasn't smaller than the previous two. That looked like a stock of spare parts. The third room she examined, which was noticeably smaller, turned out to be the pantry. As she walked out and headed to the fourth one, Rose walked downstairs.

"Here you are. Dinner is ready"

Ara stopped for a moment, then answered "Ah, right, I'd almost forgotten about it"

They walked back upstairs. The table was already set, but only for two people. By the look of it, steaks with potatoes was the course. There were also several bottles, some with a peculiar shape.

"Where's Oberon?"

"He said he had a few things to do. Seems like we'll eat by ourselves today. By the way, he's the one who cooked, not me"

Dinner went... worse than expected, in a way. Or at least it started that way, since for some reason, neither of them spoke for around five minutes. And Ara took that as a bad sign. Why, she wasn't sure herself. The one to restart the conversation, however, was Rose.

"So, what did you do before coming here?"

"Well, nothing special. I lived with my brother. But since he recently got engaged, I thought it'd have been better to leave the house completely to him. I didn't want to be in the way"

 _People leave their houses for this kind of reasons where you lived?_ Rose thought.

"You mean you two lived by yourselves? What about your parents?"

"My mother died giving birth to me. As for my father, I've never heard of him"

"... sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"Don't worry, really. What about you?"

"I think you can say I was a mercenary"

And then there was silence. A brief one.

"... really?"

"Well, I was more of a bodyguard than an actual mercenary, to be honest. The pay wasn't bad"

"Why did you quit then?"

"I just didn't really like that work. That's all. And this job sounded interesting"

After that, they kept talking about trivial things for a while. And found out the one they thought to be wine was actually some sort of juice. Of what fruit, neither of them could tell.

* * *

Meanwhile, Oberon was on the roof of the building. He had opened a panel, under which were what looked like electrical circuits, tough they were half-transparents. That was something he had been working on since a couple of months ago. Something in the tracking system went wrong, which meant the only ways to know if something left its book at the moment were those he had told Ara and Rose about. The tracking system checked the library daily in search of open books, and gave the general location in case if found one. At first he thought the problem, whatever it was, was something in the software, and he spent a month and a half going trough its code. But that seemed to be fine, so there had to be something wrong in the circuits. Luckily, the tracking system was installed only in the house, which meant the damage had to be there. Checking the whole library would have required years. After forty, maybe fifty minutes of working on the cables and components, he closed the panel. There was nothing wrong there. There weren't many places left to controll tough. Two week at most, to check them.. He stood up and looked at the library. The sun was setting, dying the scenery with shades of orange and yellow. A sight he had seen for many, many years. Then, he noticed something, on the seventh floor. It was far, to the point an human, a normal one at least, wouldn't have seen anything. A small flock of birds -fake ones, since there weren't real animals inside there- took flight from a tree. Which meant someone or something got too close to them. He sat down on the roof, and simply stood there, looking at both nothing and everything. Whatever it was that scared the birds, it could surely wait untill the next day.

He wondered about his two assistants, like Eve had called them. That word had a weird sound to him. What he was thinking about was how well they could handle things. They had been selected by his mistress, which meant they weren't normal people. If things went smoothly, he would have seen them at work the next day. After a while, he took a small book out of his pocket. He had yet to finish reading it. On the cover was written "Study of the social structure of wyverns in their natural habitat and their relationship with dragons, fifth volume"

* * *

 **Second done.**

 **Overall a longer introduction than I thought it would be.**


	3. First Day at Work

**First Day at Work  
**

Ara somehow managed to wake up at a decent hour without anyone calling her that morning. Actually getting up from the bed required twenty more minutes tough. It was really comfortable under the sheets. After having left the bed, she washed herself and combed her hair, which was in a rather horrible state. Except for her cowlick. That was in perfect shape. When she opened the wardrobe, however, she found more clothes than those she had placed there. She turned her gaze to the luggages, and noticed the orange one was open, and empty. Apparently, Eun had unpacked her stuff. She walked to the desk and opened a few drawers before finding the black, titleless book. She took it out and skimmed trough the pages, until she reached the last one with something wrote on it.

 _I've put my things in order. The place looks nice at night. You can even see the stars, and the moon looks nice from the roof._

 _Oh, before I forget, it's your turn._

After reading that last sentence, Ara turned to the chess board. A white pawn had been moved. She sighed, placed the book back inside the desk, then went back to the wardrobe, took her usual set of clothes and got changed, leaving her nightgown on the bed. She walked to the door, then stopped, did a one-eighty and went back, took her nightgown and put it in the wardrobe. Then she walked to the chess board and reached for one of the black pawns. She stopped right before grabbing it, stood there for a moment, then moved her hand to a different pawn and moved that instead. After that, she finally left her room.

She found Oberon in the main room -that's how she had decided to call that messy yet perfectly clean place- , sitting at the kitchen table, reading a book. Seems like he had prepared breakfast. What said breakfast actually was, Ara wasn't sure, since she had never seen that kind of food before. As for Rose, she wasn't there. Maybe she was still sleeping. Ara looked out of the windows. It probably was a bit earlier than she had expected. Which was unusual for her. She usually slept almost until lunch when left by herself.

"Good morning"

Oberon looked up from his book.

"You woke up early. I expected you to sleep in"

"Why is that?"

"The cowlick gives that impression"

"The... no, wait, alright. Kind of. Ehr, what's for breakfast?" she asked to change subject as she walked to the table and sat at his left, leaving an empty chair between them.

"I tried a couple of recipes I found in a book. The taste seemed to be fine"

"Is that what you're reading now?"

"Not exactly" he replied, showing her the cover of the book. The same he was reading the previous evening.

"... so you even have this kind of books here... wait, that's fiction? Or did someone actually did that research?"

"I'm quite sure someone really did the research"

And then Rose walked in.

"Ah, good morning"

"Good morning"

She walked to the table and sat down at Oberon's right.

"This place somewhat reminds me of an hotel" she commented.

"Well, maybe a bit..."

"Is that good, or bad?" asked Oberon.

"I wonder..."

After that, nothing special happened for the rest of the breakfast. Once Rose and Ara had finished eating, Oberon spoke.

"There's some work to do, on the seventh floor probably. We'll leave once you're ready"

The two girls nodded and went back to their rooms. They didn't have that many preparations to do, so they came back in less that five minutes. Ara was carrying her spear on her back, and had tied around her waist a woven bag, a bit larger than her clenched fist. Rose, on the other hand, was carrying a few more things. Around her thighs were tied two holsters, a semi-automatic pistol in each one. Around her waist she had two more holsters, inside which were a pair of revolvers. On her back were four metal... blocks, Ara wasn't sure how to define them, the two on the lower half of her back being narrow and elongated when compared to the other two. Ara couldn't really identify them since they didn't look like any weapon she knew about -that's, if they actually were weapons- tough given their size, if they were firearms then they couldn't be anything much bigger than guns.

The two girls looked at each other for a few seconds without saying a single word. For some reason, they'd never talked about their respective weapons, and both of them were actually quite surprised at the sight. Whatever it is they had imagined, it was different from what they had just seen. Oberon simply looked at the two of them. He had a pair of cross-shaped, bladed tonfa hosted around his waist. A couple more seconds of silence passed by, and then he spoke.

"Is something wrong?"

"Ah, no"

"Nothing" they replied.

After hearing that, he walked outside, the two girls following a few steps behind him. They went to the Linker, and walked trough the door of a tree close to a wall. The tree they walked out of was small, at most four meters high. The orange line they'd expected to see was actually there, but it traced a rather small perimeter, probably no more than twenty, twenty-five square meters. There was a somewhat large tent there, which could easily host five or six people inside, and an extinguished campfire right in front of it. The bookshelves were quite abundant, as well as the trees. The ceiling of the library wasn't visible from there, and the light, despite being present, lacked a clear source. Or rather, it was like the floors above them didn't prevent the light from reaching them.

"This is... quite shocking, compared to the house..." Ara said, looking at the tent.

"Most of these areas are hardly ever used. The smallest one has nothing more than an hammok and a torch"

Ara looked at the wall of the library, which there was practically a single, huge bookshelf, and found something.

"Where does that door lead?" she asked, pointing to it.

More than that of a door, its size was similar to that of a gate, albeit a rather small one. There was a large padlock, with a normal-sized lock which seemed small in comparison, blocking the door.

"I'd leave that for another time" he replied "It's not particularly important now, and I think it would be better if you get used to this place first"

Oberon then turned around. From there, the end of the floor was visible, tough it was at least half a kilometer away, likely more.

"I'll let you two handle things this time. I'd like to know what you can do"

"Alright"

"Say, how resistant are things inside here?" asked Rose.

"More than they look like. And even if you end up breaking something, it's not a problem. The library has a couple of self-repair systems. As for the books themselves, I've never seen them getting damaged, no matter what happened around or at them"

"Perfect"

"Two last things. First, there are flocks of small birds here and there in the library. They're a sort of security program: when something gets too close to them, us included, they fly away. Second, we're currently on the seventh floor. In case you needed to know it"

"Alright"

After a brief moment, Ara and Rose started walking, Oberon following them. The bookshelves were grouped three by three: the shelves of the same group were paraller to each other and perpendicular to those of the adjacent groups. The inner end of the floor was overlooking the rest of the library, and from there they could orientate themselves in case they ended up getting lost. However, the only real landmarks were the inner and outer end of the floor, which told them where the centre of the library was. Truth is, a few well-placed walls would have turned that place into a respectable labyrinth. That being said, their plan was... nonexistent. Actually, having absolutely no idea what they were even looking for was a bit stressful in itself. At least for Ara. Rose seemed really relaxed. Maybe even a bit too much. They turned right or left who knows how many times, found a stair and went to the lower floor, scarying away two or three flock of birds in the process, then walked all the way to the inner end of the floor and from there, they took a good look of the library. They already knew the place was evocative, but the sight from up there was really amazing. There was a soft breeze blowing agaist them. A couple of meters from there was a passageway, heading into the net of suspended roads. This one, in particular, had a small river, or rather, a stream running on it. There was no parapet, and the road wasn't that large -three meters at most, with the stream being between half a meter and a meter wide- Considering the height they were at, a fall from there would have been anything but fun. Then again, the possibility of falling on another passageway, on a tree or on a branch of the main tree at the centre of the library was there, falling all the way to the ground floor wasn't guaranteed. Well, a fall from half the height they were at was enough to kill any normal person anyway. That said, they decided to go that way. On the suspended road were a few small bookshelves, which seemed almost pocket-sized when compared to the much larger ones placed everywhere else inside the library. After having traveled a good two-hundred-meters, Rose stopped and turned back.

"I'm getting quite tired of this" she said as she pulled one of her guns out. She removed a small part of the barrel, then fired a good number of shots at random above her head. The library was probably big for the sound to reach every corner of it, but as long as whatever they were looking for wasn't too far -and could hear sounds- it should have heard it.

Rose put the piece she had taken off back on the gun and sat down, casually whistling as she reloaded her weapon.

"You seem quite used to this" commented Ara.

"I'd rather wait to see what it is we're searching before saying if I'm actually used to this or not, really. It may be a giant, flaming, winged serpent for all we know. And trust me, I've never seen something like that"

"That did come out a couple of years ago" said Oberon, who was now sitting on the floor with his legs crossed.

Ara and Rose turned to him.

"... really?"

"Yes. It had a rather bad temper, but it wasn't that much of a problem. We settled things with a match of cards, then he went back inside the book"

"You're kidding"

"I guess it doesn't sound realistic to someone who's not used to this place. He may come back though, so maybe you'll meet him. If they're inteligent and with the right knowledge, they can do that. Actually, there are some who periodically come out to visit this place"

Ara and Rose stared at Oberon, then at each other. Then they shook their heads. They had other things to think about at the moment. Like the birds which just came flying from the lower floor. The two of them focused on that area and, after a while, something arrived at the edge of the floor. Its shape was similar to that of a man, or rather, that of a mannequin. It was five, maybe six meters tall, but extremely slim, to the point it almost looked like there was hardly any flesh between his bones and his skin, which was of a pale, dirty white, with some veins being clearly visible underneath it. He looked sick, or at least the skin gave off that impression. There wasn't a single hair on its body. His fingers and toes, long and slender, were normal only up to the first joint. After that point, their color suddenly turned black. A deep, clean black, which somewhat resembled glass. As for its face, it was empty, with no features. Or eyes. It lacked a nose and a mouth, as well. Even the ears were missing.

"No, I'm not used to this I'd say" Rose commented.

"That's actually a relief, in some way" Ara replied.

The thing turned its head to them. It had probably heard them. They stood there, staring -if that thing could actually see anything- at each other for a few minutes, then it turned to the start of the passageway they were on. It raised its arm towards it, as if to grab it. And then, it began stretching itself. First its arms, then its torso and legs as well, extended. His skin looked like it was going to rip, but it didn't. He somehow kept its balance, tough its current position was everything but balanced.

 _That's creepy_ Ara thought.

It then reached the suspended road, clinged to it, and its body began to contract, slowly going back to its original size. He then climbed up to the road, turned towards them, and slowly started walking.

"I propose killing it" said Rose as she pulled out her guns and aimed them at it.

"Don't you think you're being a bit hasty?"

"Does it look friendly to you?"

"Why not give it a try?"

"... if you insist" she replied, lowering her weapons.

After that little chat, Ara started walking towards the creature. When she got close enough, she stopped, and it did the same. They were at two, maybe three meters from each other.

"Ehr, uh... hello?"

No reply. Instead, it bent down, towards her, until his face was in front of Ara. His head was actually as big as her thorax, if not a bit more. Ara slowly moved an hand towards it, but avoided actually touching it. Then, a thin line appeared on its face. Judging by its position, that was his mouth. He had one, then. And it seemed to be as large as his whole head. It then slowly swirled its neck, until its head was upside down. In the process, Ara heard a sound similar to that of steel being twisted. The thing smiled, showing its teeth. Sharp teeth, each as long as Ara's fingers and a bit thicker, and he had three rows of them. The same instant the white being lunged forward, Ara jumped back, and the creature ended up closing its jaws on thin air. Before landing, Ara grasped her spear and just as her feet touched the floor, thrusted it forward, accompanying the movement with her whole body to give more strenght to the blow. The point of her weapon pierced trough its skin, but for no more than a centimeter; she felt something hard -its skull, she guessed- resisting the blade, and she also heard a faint, metallic sound. The thing got pushed back without taking any serious damage, or at least not any visible one. Ara took two steps back and moved to the side. Rose unloaded the two guns's cylinders on it, aiming at its chest. Given the distance she was shooting from and the fact that she was using guns, her landing each and every shot was quite impressive. When the bullets hit it, Ara heard the same metallic sound, tough Rose was definitely too far to hear it. The faceless creature turned and started running away. Had he been the same size of a person, he would have probably been slow. But given the lenght of his legs, it didn't take him that many steps to reach the start of the passageway and head inside the almost-maze of bookshelves. Ara sprinted after him, at a speed Rose actually didn't believe possible for an human. In a few moments, she had disappeared behind a bookshelf, chasing it. Oberon, who had been standing behind them the whole time, immediatly dashed past Rose, probably at the same speed of Ara.

"H-hey!" she shouted, and started running after them. And for some reason, she kind of felt like a slug.

After her initial sprint, Ara had slowed down, tough she was still running much faster than any normal person could. The creature wasn't fast enough to leave her behind, but it wasn't slow enough for her to catch up either. Truth is, it was out of her sight. She was chasing the sound its glass-like toes made against the floor. Until that sound suddenly disappeared. She stopped, raised her guard and slowly moved forward. Ara turned left and right, examining her surroundings. She guessed it had stopped running to ambush her, which meant he could be behind every corner, since she bookshelves were tall enough to cover it. She turned left and kept walking slowly. From there she could see all the way to both the outer and the inner ends of the floor. A sound. She turned aroud, and saw nothing. She ran her gaze all over the place, but found no trace of the creature. She turned back around, and at the same time, it sprinted out from behind a shelf, on all four, and given how close to the ground it was, it was probably crawling, its limbs bending at impossible angles as he moved forward. It was around forty meters away from her when it left its hiding place, but it covered the distance in a couple of seconds or less. Ara heard it and instinctively jumped to the side. But the creature stopped itself using his hands to hold on the shelves, bent its chest at 90 degree, revealing joints humans didn't have, and tried to bite Ara again. And again she jumped back, spun her weapon to gain momentum and stroke its head with the secondary blade of her spear in a downward motion. The impact pushed its head violently against the floor, but her weapon, after cutting trough the skin, bounced on its skull. Ara sprinted forward and thrusted her spear against its chest, hitting exactly where it was bent. She stroke with enough strenght to push it against a shelf. The blade, however, got blocked again. By what bone, she couldn't tell. There weren't supposed to be any ribs where she had hit it. The creature reached for her with its hands as it stood back up. Ara took a few steps back, and then a rifle shot echoed. A bullet pierced the white being's leg. She wasn't sure if it had pierced its bones, but it had at least enough force to make it fall down. Ara backed a dozen or so meters with a few quick jumps and, as the creature was falling after receiving another bullet on its waist, sprinted forward and thrusted her spear again, jumping to reach its mouth. The blow was violent enough to force its way trough its jaws, breaking one of its teeth in the process, and her weapon reached all the way to the other side of its head, crushing its skull. Ara, who had expected the blade to stop rather than pierce the bone and keep moving forward for inertia, almost ended up impaling her own hands on its teeth. The creature collapsed against a shelf. Ara pulled her spear back, carrying out some of the creature's brain in the process, and got down of it. Its blood was of a dark, dull green. Not a great sight. She shook the pieces off her weapon, and checked the places the bullet had hit it. Seems like they did actually pierce its bones. Well, it probably had an exoskeleton or something like that rather than actual bones. Ara poked it with the tip of her spear a bit. No responses. She turned, and saw Rose walking up to her, a sniper rifle in her hand, a somewhat annoyed expression of her face.

"You snatched it all for yourself" she said as the rifle bent on itself and retracted, until it had turned into one of the four metal blocks she had on her back. Ara wondered what the other three were.

"Well, it was running away, and I..." she started saying, not sure on how to reply.

"Come on, I'm kidding" the blonde responded as she smacked her fingers on her forehead.

"Hey"

Then they both looked first at the creature, then at Oberon, who was now standing a few steps next to them. He picked up the tooth and looked at it for a moment, then put it in his pocket and turned his attention to the creature's body. It was turning into ink. Oberon took some of it into a small vial covered with deep-red incisions. The ink then crawled away, so quicky they could barely get a glimpse of it. The small amount inside the vial, blocked by the glass, was creeping against it, trying to get to wherever the remainder of ink had gone to.

"What was that?" asked Rose.

"It returned to where it came from. I told you that's what happens when they die outside their book"

"Well, yes. It's just... I didn't take that so literally"

"You can go back to the house if you want. The book should be lying on the floor, somewhere. I'll go find it and put it back on its shelf now" he said. The vial was a sort of unconventional compass, the two girls guessed.

"To be honest, I'm kinda... lost... I didn't pay too much attention to where I was going..." said Ara, a bit embarrassed about it.

"Don't worry, I remember the way" commented Rose.

"I'll see you later then" Oberon told them before walking away. He was actually disappointed. Not by them, but by the fact the actual fight was so short. He couldn't really get an idea of what the two of them could do from that.

Meanwhile, Rose had started walking back, Ara following her.

"Thinking about it now, that wasn't as strange as I had expexted it to be" she commented.

"Really?" asked Rose.

"There were a few weird things in the forest near my house. Well, none of them ever tried to kill anyone tough"

"That sound interesting. An example?"

"Well, there was this large tree -nowhere near as large as the one here, let's be clear about it- and each and every time someone rested against its trunk, an herd of frogs would come out from nothing to keep staring at the person until it left"

"That's a different kind of weird tough"

They kept talking until they reached the tree they had crossed three, if not more, hours earlier. Rose opened the door and crossed it first. Ara stopped for a moment and turned. A few meters away from her was a small child, wrapped in a long, light brown robe, his head covered by an hood. Given its height, he couldn't have had more than eight, maybe nine years. Quite startled, Ara walked up to him. The child looked straight at her eyes. His hood casted an unnatural shadow on his face, and Ara could see nothing but his bright red eyes.

"Uh... where do you come from, little one?" she asked.

The child reached out, as if to greet her. Ara, who had always been awkward when dealing with children, shook his small hand.

"So, uh... hi. I'm Ara"

Tough she couldn't see really see it, she could have sworn the child was smiling. Then, he simply turned into ink and crawled away, just like the white creature did after being killed.

"W-wait, how... what?"

"Ara? Is something wrong?" Rose called out from the Linker.

"Ah, no, nothing!" she replied as she headed back. Regardless of what had just happened, she was sure of something. She was hungry.

* * *

 **Third out.**

 **See you around.  
**


	4. The Same Size as Hers

**The Same Size as Hers  
**

Oberon came back three or four hours later than them, after which he started making dinner. He seemed quite used to it. Which really wasn't weird, given he used to work there alone and had to cook his meals himself. While eating, Ara and Rose asked him a few questions.

"How was that? I mean, compared to what you deal with usually"

"Normal. Having two arms, two legs and an head is surprisingly far more common than I had first expected. Also somewhat disappointing, I would say"

"You said some come out periodically. Why do they?"

"They each have their reasons. Some are simply bored and come here looking for a way to kill some time. Others are curious about this place. One even wanted to make sure it hadn't been a dream. You'll probably meet them, sooner or later, so it's better if you wait and ask them directly"

And a few other not-so-important questions, about trivial matters. An almost completely normal conversation. After dinner, Ara went to the warehouse. There were still three rooms she hadn't seen. Well, she really planned to only take a look at one of them that evening, before going to sleep. She headed to the fifth door from the right, opened it and walked inside. The room wasn't illuminated by candles, but by green, neon lighting which ran all over the walls, the floor and the ceilings, not to mention the ring-shaped ones floating mid-hair, placed at regular intervals. Even a quick glance was enough to tell that place was a sort of hospital, and Ara could see a stair leading to both a lower and an upper floor. Ironically, the green light made it somehow look like a place where people would get ill, rather than one where they would receive medical treatment. A quick walk proved to be enough to visit the whole room which, despite being split into three floors, was way smaller than the others she had visited down there. Oddly enough, there was a small area which seemed to be used more for mechanical reparations than medical treatment. Overall, she had oped to find something more interesting, though a place like that being there was actually useful. Granted, she'd rather not have to use that, but given what her new job was, the chance of getting some serious injury was there. Regardless, she left the room and headed upstairs.

Neither Oberon nor Rose were in the main room, so she simply walked back to her apartment. And decided to have a shower. Then she walked around the room for a bit, while still wearing her bathrobe: she wanted to see if all the drawers and wardrobes she hadn't used were actually empty. And she didn't feel like drying her hair, which is why she was still wearing her bathrobe. Turns out the furniture was really empty. At one point, she found herself on the inner balcony on the wall shared with Oberon's room. One of the two windows -which were actually double, meaning one could be open on one side but closed on the other- was open. Out of curiosity, she walked up to it, and moved the black curtain a bit, just enough to open a chink through which she could look. On the other side not only the window was open, but the curtain had been pulled completely to the side. At first glance, the room really looked exactly like hers, just without her personal effects. But a second look told her the furniture wasn't as abundant there. Oberon was there, but the bed was between him and her, so Ara couldn't tell what he was doing. Then she realized she was basically spying on him, but just as she was about to leave -metaphorically, since she hadn't even really left her own room- someone knocked. Not at her door, nor at his. They had knocked at one of the windows on his room. Given which window the sound came from -and the fact that there were only three people in the whole library- it had to be Rose. Oberon stood up -seems like he was sitting on the floor with his back against the bed- and walked to said window. That window was actually was open on his side, just like all the others in his room. Rose had probably knocked on the window on her side, out of politeness. Then again, Ara wasn't sure how polite it was to knock at someone's window rather than at their door. Anyway, Oberon moved the curtain to the side. Rose was there.

"Good evening, boss"

"Boss?"

"Well, you are the one in charge here, and Ara and I are here as assistants, so..."

"I don't like that word too much. Phonetically, I mean" he replied as he realized she had never actually called him before.

"How should I call you then? Master?" she asked, a bit or irony in her voice, a somewhat playful smile on her face.

A brief silence. Oberon wondered whetever he should have sighed or not. He decided not to.

"You can call me however you like"

"As you wish"

"Did you want to talk about something in particular?"

"Actually, yes. Do you mind coming to my room? I'd rather not talk through a window" she asked.

"No" he replied, and he walked trough the window as Rose stepped back.

 _Wait... what are you doing?_ thought Ara.

A moment after Oberon had just disappeared behind the curtain, and Ara stepped into his room, before walking to the window he had just crossed, being careful not to make any sound. She stopped right next to it. The curtain, which had been left to the side on Oberon's side, was completely covering Rose's side of the window. Ara moved it a bit to the side. The chink was so small she couldn't really see much, but the last thing she wanted at the moment was to be found out. Rose and Oberon were taking a seat at the main table. To Ara it looked like that table had been moved closer to the bed than it originally was, but maybe she was wrong. Or maybe it had always been there and simply it was placed a bit differently in that room from how it was placed in hers.

There was a brief silcence, then Rose spoke.

"So, how long have you been working here?"

"Much longer than you probably expect"

A somewhat evasive reply, followed by another brief silence.

"Alright, I'll get right to the point. You're not human, right? Not completely, at least" she asked. What he had said about the flowers's scents not bothering him in the loft and the way he had said it, the way he had just avoided stating exactly how long he had been there, and maybe something else as well, had made her suspicious.

"I'm not human" he replied immediatly "Why do you ask?"

"It's just the kind of thing I'd like to know about someone I'll be working together with"

"Reasonable"

"Then, sorry if I sound rude but what exactly are you?"

"The same as my mistress"

"You mean Eve? I thought she simply had a few invasive implants?"

Rose was sitting with her back facing the window Ara was eavesdropping from, but Oberon was sitting right in front of her. He raised his head for a short moment. Rose gave it no real meaning, but Ara feared he had seen her. It lasted less than a second, but they made eye contact. But Oberon said nothing.

"We're nasods"

 _Yeah, no way._ thought Ara.

"... am I supposed to know what that means... ?" Rose replied.

Odd.

"Simply put, we're machines"

"... really? I mean, I've seen both cyborgs and robots already, but I've never even heard of a machine which looked this much like an human. And where I come from, technology is quite advanced" she said. Her tone made it clear that the last part was only an euphemism.

Really odd. Almost suspicious. That's the first thing Oberon thought. Nasods were kind of like an old but still told fairy tale: everyone had at least heard of them, and most people knew what they were said to be. And given that Rose was, or at least seemed to be, a mechanic of sort, her having never even heard that word was weird, to say the least. He stood there, silently looking at her, for a moment. Then he stood up and simply opened his upper clothes, at which Ara blushed a bit. He wasn't particularly muscular, but he looked trained. He placed his right hand on his heart. A square line shone for a moment, then a small part of his chest opened. Inside, where his heart was supposed to be, was a small, glowing blue orb, with a pentagonal and exagonal texture all over it, slightly smaller than his clenched fist.

"... you're kidding..." Rose said as she leaned on the table to take a closer look. There were cables going from the globe to somewhere else inside his body, and not a single piece of flesh nor a drop of blood could be seen anywhere. She touched his chest. It was cold. Then she got up, walked to his side and looked closer.

"I think this is a good proof" he said, as calm as ever.

"How..."

"What about you?" he asked.

"Eh?"

"I'd like to know from what place you are from"

"... Empyrean. It's... quite far from here" she replied. It sounded like she didn't want to talk about it. At all. And so Oberon decided not to inquire her further. He had no hurry to know, after all. Actually, he didn't really need to know it at all. He was simply a bit curious.

Rose was still looking at Oberon's... heart, since it probably had the same functions as an human heart. She counted the cables she could see departing from it, and followed them with her fingers. By the look of it, they linked that globe with what probably were the equivalent of his organs. She then ran a finger on his throat. He was cold, and his skin was a bit smoother than it looked like, but aside from that she really couldn't tell the difference between him and a person made of flesh. She could even feel his muscles and his ribs under his skin. Well, she would have bet that wasn't real skin and those weren't real muscles or bones. And then, he placed an hand on her chest, slightly above her left breast. On her heart.

"It beats" he said, simply "Mine doesn't"

After hearing those words, Rose slowly moved an hand forward. She stopped at the opening in his chest. She was going to touch directly his heart, after all. But Oberon said nothing, nor did he show any sign of it being a problem. And so, she touched the blue globe. For no more than a single second. It was cold. So cold she didn't even believe her senses. She touched it again. Yes, it was cold. Colder than everything she could think off. And there was no pulse. Instead, she felt something flowing inside it, in a similar way to blood flowing in and out of an human heart. She moved her hand a bit to the side, and touched one of the cables. Its temperature was much, much closer to that of his skin. And she could feel something flowing inside it too. Then, Oberon moved his hand from her chest to her neck, slid a finger beneath her kimono, and moved it to the side, uncovering her left shoulder. There was a scar there. One left from a gunshot.

"Do you have any?" she asked.

"Scars?"

She nodded.

"No. I don't"

He... really didn't seem a machine. He had proved it, there was no denying it, but it still was kind of hard to believe. She couldn't help but wonder just how much he actually resembled an human. Oberon let go of her kimono and walked to a nightstand on the right side of her bed. He had seen something on top of it. To be accurate, two things. One was a pair of leather cuffs. He took it and looked at it for a few moments.

"I met someone who had the same hobby once" he said.

"Oh... oh, and where?" Rose replied, a bit confused by that sudden change of topic.

"So you do actually have this hobby"

"Well, why else would I have one of those?"

"Who knows"

"Going back to my question..."

"At the third floor"

"... from a book?"

"That's where visitors come from, usually. Except for you and Ara, It's been a really long time since I last met someone from outside the library. Actually, I don't think someone from outside has ever come here as a visitor" he replied "Dealing with her was quite troublesome. She liked to tie others up. Though there was someone helping me back then. What about you?"

"What do you mean?"

Oberon turned to her. He had put the leather cuffs back where they were, and was now holding the other thing he had seen on the nightstand. A pair of metal handcuffs, which strongly resembled bracelets. They were quite different from ordinary cuffs.

"The width of those leather cuffs can be adjusted, but that of these can't. And they have just the right size for your wrists" he said as he closed the hole in his chest with his other hand.

"So... do you want to check how well they fit me?" she asked, smiling. And that definitively wasn't an innocet smile. Truth is, Rose herself was quite surprised at her reaction. Maybe it was something about him being what he was, maybe she wanted to see if he resembled an human even in that aspect. Whatever the reason could possibly be, she found him quite attractive. And he did have a nice body, after all.

 _Wait. Wait wait wait. What's with this turn of events?!_ Ara asked herself.

As for Oberon, he hadn't really expected that either. He thought about it for a few moments, then walked up to Rose.

"Under other circumstances, I would have said yes. But there are a few things which I need to deal with, and I'd like to do so as soon as possible"

She leaned closer to him.

"You're the one who started this. And now you back away? That's not really..."

She was going to say manly, but... she wasn't sure that would have made sense to someone -she really couldn't bring herself to think of him as "something"- like him. Then she realized her thoughts were kind of contradicting themselves. Just as she was thinking that, Oberon leaned down, bringing his face next to her. And whispered something. Ara couldn't hear it, but she could see Oberon's face from her position. And, for a brief moment, he had turned his gaze towards her. Straight in her eyes. For the second time.

 _He knows I'm here, he knows I'm here..._ she kept repeating to herself.

Then Oberon backed away from Rose.

"As you wish then" Rose said while readjusting her kimono's shoulder.

Oberon, who had readjusted his clothes as well, walked back upstairs, to the window, Rose following him. It took Ara a few moments to realize they were going to her hiding spot -if that could really be called an hiding spot- and to back away. She wasn't sure she could have made it back to her room in time without causing too much noise, so she dashed to the closest wardrobe and hid inside. Luckily, it was empty. Then again, most of the furniture in that house was almost or completely empty for all she knew. A few seconds later, Oberon crossed the window. As convenient as that was to go from a room to the other, it was still quite weird to use a window instead of a door.

"I'll see you tomorrow then" he said to Rose.

"As you wish. Master"

A brief silence.

"As I said, you can call me however you like"

"And I like this word. Phonetically"

Once again, Oberon decided not to sigh. A few moments later, Rose closed the window and pulled the curtain. Oberon then looked around the room for a while. In a matter of minutes, he eventually found what he was looking for.

"Good evening" he said to Ara, after having hopened the wardrobe.

"Ehr... good evening... ?"

"Do you mind coming out of there?"

"... no"

The first thing he noticed was that she was wearing nothing but a bathrobe.

"Do you always eavesdrop or is this an unusual occurrence?" he asked, calm as always.

"An unusual occurence"

"And...?"

"And... what?"

Oberon walked to the closest table, sat down and gestured Ara to do the same. Just as he had finished doing so, he wondered why he did it that way. It was quite unusual for him to tell someone what to do, even if it was something as insignificant as that. Regardless, Ara sat down in front of him. She was a bit nervous, if anything because of her current attire.

"Did you like what you saw?"

"What?"

"Would it have been better if I didn't leave?"

"I'm afraid I don't get what you mean..."

"You're a voyeur?"

"N..." she started to shout, but Oberon had brought a finger on his lips and pointed at Rose's room. Shouting maybe wasn't a great idea. Truth is, Oberon simply didn't feel like hearing someone shout at the moment "No, I'm not" Ara finished saying with a normal tone, her face a bit flushed. "And ... that's probably the last thing I was expecting you to ask... or rather, I wasn't expecting that at all..."

"How so?"

"Well... wouldn't it make more sense to ask why I was spying on you?"

"That was the next question"

"Ok, alright, then... can we skip the previous ones?"

Since she had no idea how that conversation could have continued.

"Sure"

"Great. Then... well, at first I was just a bit curious about your room, I mean, you said they were all the same but I thought they couldn't be really exactly the same and those windows made me think maybe it wouldn't have been a bad idea to take a look and then Rose arrived and I got curious about what she wanted to talk with you about and then... you're really a nasod?"

"You saw that"

"I thought you were nothing more than a child's story"

"That's what we are now. My mistress and me are the only ones left, after all"

"What about the others? The story is about a kingdom"

"In short, a war gone wrong. Just like the story says"

"... You know" she said after a few seconds of silence "I did know someone who was absolutely sure you really existed. I never believed him though"

"Seems like he was right"

"I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to tell him"

"You can leave the library whenever you want"

"That's not it. I mean, I don't know where he is. A few things happened, and we... kind of parted ways"

"Was he important to you?"

"I'm not sure"

Then, Oberon suddenly stood up.

"I should be working now" he said "I'll see you tomorrow"

"Ah, uh, sure... good night then...?"

"Good night"

And with that, Oberon left. From the door. Ara stood there for a few moments before going back to her room. She took out the titleless book and wrote a few lines on it. Then she went to sleep, still wearing her bathrobe.

* * *

A few hours later, Eun woke up. She stretched her arms, got up, stretched her legs too and walked to a wardrobe -not the one Ara had put her clothes in, another one- and got dressed. Her attire was really different from Ara's. She was wearing a short, asymmetrical, tight dress, a bit longer on the right side, white on the front and on the back and black on the sides, with decorative red lines going over it, mainly on the left side. The dress was linked trough a circular, orange brooch to a black choker, golden on the edges. Her dress, which didn't cover her legs much more than Ara's short skirt did, was split into two trains, one rather short on the left, reaching her knee, and another one twice as long on the right, both pleated. They were dyed the same black of her dress, though they were orange on the inner side. Her shoulders were completely bare, even though she wore a black feather boa made of fur going from one arm to behind her neck to the other arm. She wore extremely long, tight, black gloves, almost reaching her shoulders, with orange and golden decorations on the back of her hands. On her left arm she also wore a detached, large, black sleeve, red on the inside, with a white line on its edge. Her right leg was completely bare, while her right one was covered by a black thigh high, which reached halfway between her knee and her hips and had golden decoration at the upper end. She was wearing two simple yet elegant, black shoes with a medium heel and a few yellow decorations. They left most of her feet uncovered. As for her hair, she had a rather long strand of hair going from the right side of her forehead to a bit below her neck, while almost all the rest of her hair was tied behind her head in an hair bun from which two long strands of hair departed. She was also wearing three different hairpins, each one golden and somewhat resembling a butterfly, the biggest one on the back of her head, the two smaller ones on the left side, close to the ear.

Unlike Ara, Eun was well aware of her -or maybe "theirs" would be more accurate, since they had the same body- good looks, and she liked to wear clothes which didn't cover it more than she considered necessary. And for some reason, she liked her clothes asymmetrical. She adjusted her dress a bit more at the mirror, then grabbed her spear. Hers, the black one. Not Ara's. And then she walked out, hoping for something interesting to happen. Or, at the very least, for the chance of making something fun. And just as she was about to leave the house, she met Oberon, who was coming back from outside. They stared at each other for a few seconds. Then Oberon said something. As for why he said that, he would have kept the next few hours wondering about it.

"Yours have the same size as hers. Your wrists"

He was referring to Rose's. After hearing that, Eun laughed. She had just heard something interesting. And really funny.

* * *

 **Fourth out.**

 **I hope you're enjoying this.**


	5. Birth

**Birth**

Eun laughed. Oberon, on the other hand, started wondering why he had said it. Not because she was laughing. Simply because it was unusual for him to say something like that so suddenly.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" she asked.

"I'm quite sure there was no hidden meaning in that phrase"

Eun laughed again, though this time it wasn't as loud.

"Come on, I saw you and Rose" she replied.

Oberon walked to the kitchen-like part of the room and took out a bottle of... something.

"Did I miss out on Ara having a twin who moved here with her, or is there something about her - or you - I'm not aware of? "

"Can we stay on the subject, if you don't mind?"

"Sure" he replied as he raised the bottle towards her.

"Why not" Eun said as she walked to the table and sat down on a chair "What's that, by the way?"

"Wine. A sort of"

Oberon took out two glasses, poured the drink, handed one to Eun and sat down, leaving an empty chair between himself and her. Then they drank. The glasses weren't that big, and Eun emtpied hers in a couple of gulps. It tasted weird. Somewhat like real wine, but with a somehow spicy aftertaste. Oberon, on the other hand, didn't drink more than half of his.

"So, what was that about?" she asked.

"Wrist size, I'd say"

"And why is that important?"

"It is?"

Eun refilled her glass and took another sip.

"You don't look like the kind of person who says something like that for no reason"

 _That's true. I guess_ he thought.

"It's just something I noticed when I saw you in your bathrobe"

"Do you by chance have a wrist fetish?" she asked laughing softly.

"I don't, I'm quite sure about it. But now I think it's your time to answer"

"Fair point. Well, no, I'm not Ara. Though you had already guessed that, I'd say. Let's put it this way" she said pointing to herself, or rather, to her head "This is Ara. But Ara is currently sleeping. I'm Eun"

And after saying that, she outstretched her arm toward him. And they shook hands.

"And how does it work?"

"In which sense?"

"What are you in regard to Ara?"

"Oh, that. I'm a... caretaker. Kind of. Though it does sound bad worded that way. Well, if you really want to know you can just ask her"

That wasn't exactly what he had wanted to know, but at least she hadn't avoided the question altogether. They both drank another glass.

"Alright, my turn now. What were you doing out at night?"

"Maintenance. One of the library's systems broke and I'm trying to repair it"

Not the answer she was hoping for. It wasn't as interesting as she would have liked.

"Alright then. I guess I'll go out for a walk then" she said as she got up, emptied her glass and placed it down.

"Be careful"

"Yeah, yeah" she replied, ending their conversation sooner than she had initially expected.

And with that, she walked outside, closing the door behind her. However, she didn't have an actual plan for the night. Or what was left of it, considering the sun would have risen in a few hours. She went to the Linker, and walked through a tree. One picked at random. She came out near a small house, which she would have thought to be a three-room apartment, if only space had a more solid meaning there. The yellow line demarcating the safe zone enclosed a quite large area there. The shelves were abundant, unlike the trees, which were almost absent in that part of the library. Eun started walking, enjoying the soft breeze. However, after roughly an hour and a half of aimless stroll, nothing had happened yet. Truth is, she had expected it. But that didn't made it that much less disappointing. After twenty or thirty more minutes of boredom, Eun decided to head back. And, after having turned a few corners, she heard something. She stopped and started listening. It seemed to be the sound of a pole hitting the ground at regular intervals, accompanied by a metallic noise. There were also footspets, maybe. They sounded a bit weird though, so she wasn't sure about that. She wondered for a moment, then decided to just wait there, since she got the impression they were getting closer. And after a while, the source of the sound arrived, preceded by a green light. It was a moving skeleton. And a tall one. Probably taller than Oberon. It was wearing what seemed to be white, ceremonial, tattered clothes with several dark green, snake-themed decorations over them. Long, large sleeves, a large cape and an headgear Eun wasn't sure how to describe: it was a sorf of middle-ground between an hat and a tiara. It was wearing a sorf of cassock, mostly torn, as well as metal shoulder plates, broken boots and a single glove, which looked quite out of place. Around its waist was an iron belt, which looked like a single piece of metal with no way to be removed. In its gloved hand it was holding a long scepter, apparently made out of bones, with a skull as its head, a snake-shaped ornament running all over it and apparently keeping all the pieces together. The green light was coming from inside the skull, which, Eun noticed, had several holes in it, probably to let the light spread better.

The skeleton looked at her. Its face was somehow giving off a surprised feeling. Then he took off his hat and bowed down.

"Greetings, young lady"

Well, now that's something she hadn't expected.

"... greetings"

"Oh, forgive me for my attire. Meeting someone other than the librarians here is such a rare occurrence, and so I left my good clothes at my house. Had I known I'd have meet such a fine woman, I would have dressed up in a more fitting way"

For some reason, Eun felt like laughing. But as weird as it may sound, that skeleton was a bit too polite to just start laughing at him like that. It would have been... rude.

"Oh, don't worry about it. From what you said, I assume you come here often?"

"Oftern is most likely an overstatement, but yes, I do pay a visit to the librarians every now and then. What about you? Is this your first time here?"

"Kind of"

"And which book are you from, if I may ask?"

"Actually, I come from outside this place. I started working as an assistant here recently. Very recently"

The skeleton's face somehow assumed a surprised look. How, she wasn't sure, since there was no skin nor flesh left on it.

"Then, would you be so kind as to tell them I've come to pay a visit?"

Weird. He always spoke about more than one librarian. Apparently, Oberon wasn't the only one.

"If you insist" Eun replied as she headed back to the linker, but then she stopped for a moment and asked somehing. "What's your name?"

"Oh, where are my manners? I go by the name of Kematia"

"I'm Eun"

And with that, she walked back to the house. It took a while, since she wasn't that close to the Linker when the had met the skeleton. She found Oberon in the main room, at the black table, and by the look of it, he was typing something on it while looking a bit furher from where his fingers were hitting it, as if it was both a keyboard and a screen. When she entered, Oberon greeted her.

"Did you find anything interesting?" he asked.

"Actually, yes. A certain someone named Kematia"

At that, Oberon stopped typing and turned his head toward her. He was a little surprised. It had been so long since his last visit, he had thought him to be dead. That's, definitively dead.

"I guess you could call him an old friend"

"He said something which sounded weird"

"He does that from time to time"

"Are you the only librarian?"

A brief silence.

"Yes"

"He talked using plurals"

"We were three when we started. But there's only me now" he replied as he tiped a few last words on the table before walking to the door.

"Did they leave?"

He turned to her.

"I don't think you need my reply to know the answer"

"... I guess not"

Oberon opened the door.

"You know where he is already?"

"Books don't move. He must be waiting near his one"

And with that, he walked outside. Eun, instead, walked to the table, and found nothing but its blackness. As she went back to her room, she wondered what he was doing there before she came back. Anyway, it was late. Eun walked back to her -or Ara's- room and got changed. Then she examined the chess board for a while, before making her move. Lastly, she took out the black book, wrote a few lines and put it back. And then she went to sleep.

* * *

Rose wasn't expecting anything that morning. After all, she had woken up just ten, maybe fifteen minutes ago. Nothing usually happens that early into the day. That's why she was really surprised to find a skeleton sitting in the main room. It... maybe he? Was drinking tea. Though the fact that it was also eating biscuits kind of made the whole scene a tad too weird to be taken seriously. The skeleton turned to her and stood up.

"Oh my, another fine lady" he said as he politely bowed down "Greetings. My name is Kematia, an old aquaintance of the librarian. Would you be so kind as to tell me yours?"

"Rose... Testarossa Rose..." she replied, a bit startled.

Then, Oberon came into her field of view. He was carrying a small backpack.

"Good morning"

"... 'morning... "

"Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing" she replied as she decided to just go and have breakfast. She left a good four chairs between her and Kematia though.

"I apologize for my appearance" he said.

"Oh, well... don't worry about that..."

Oberon took a small vial out of his pocket and placed it on the table. It was the same he had used the day before.

"There are a few things I must take care of. If someone leaves his book, use this to track it after having sent who came out back inside. You saw how it's used, right?"

"Yes. But what is it that you have to do without it?"

"System maintenance" he replied. Which wasn't really a lie. "Tell Ara when she wakes up" he then said.

"And, what about..." Rose replied, indicating the skeleton with her eyes.

"Oh, don't worry about me, lady Rose. I'll simply stay here to enjoy the scenery for a while. I'll go back to my home before the sun sets"

"Alright. Now, not to be unpolite" she said while turning to Kematia "but how did you get inside here?"

"I was invited"

"Eh?"

"The line doesn't work if you invite them inside" Oberon explained.

That reminded her of vampires and their relationship with other people's houses.

"Well, alright then"

And after that, the librarian left. Kematia and Rose looked at each other for a while. Despite not having an actual face and being phisically unable to use expressions, the skeleton somehow managed to show some sort of curiosity through his skull. And then, against her expectations, they talked. And surprisingly, about trivial things. He was actually a good orator, even though his way of talking seemed a bit too formal to Rose. After a while, anyway, Ara walked in. She was still half asleep, and apparently she had forgot to comb her hair. Still, her cowlick was in perfect shape. She yawned, greeted Rose, walked to the table, sat a couple of chairs away from Kematia, greeted him and grabbed a loaf. Then she stopped and turned towards the skeleton. She stared at him for a while, probably around half a minute, then turned to Rose with an inquisitive look on her face. Rose had to keep herself from laughing at the scene.

"He's a... guest, I guess" Rose said, and then she told Ara what Oberon had told her earlier. Ara wasn't that much surprised about him leaving to do some work alone, at least not as much as she was about a skeleton having breakfast. Said skeleton had just stood up.

"Greetings. My name is Kematia. And you must be lady Ara"

"Well... yes... greetings... ?"

"If you'd excuse me, I'll spend some time on the rooftop. There is a soothing sight from there"

"Sure"

And with that, the skeleton walked away too, accompanied by the sound of his scepter hitting the floor.

"He's... peculiar" Ara commented.

"Quite"

And then they both looked where he had been sitting, expecting to see tea and biscuit all over the place. But they found nothing, and decided not to wonder where the things he had aten had gone, since he had no stomach. After breakfast, Rose went outside. She took out her sniper rifle, pointed it at the great tree and looked through the weapon's lenses.

 _It's even bigger than it looks like_ she thought after having put the rifle away.

She stood there for a few minutes, wondering what to do. After a short while, she decided to go have another talk with Kematia. He had kept their previous conversation focused on small things, but there were a few questions she wanted to ask him. Just as he had said, he was on the roof, sitting on a... mass of bones, somewhat resembling a chair. Or rather, an armchair, adjusted to the slope of the roof. It was kept together by nothing at all, apparently, and it looked like there was something glowing green inside of it. As for Kematia, seems like he was doing nothing but looking at the scenery.

"Mind having another talk?" she asked.

"Not at all" he replied as he turned his gaze at her, took his scepter, which had been left resting agaist his seat, and knocked it against the ground. Next to him, the rooftop got covered by a black stain, from which another mass of bone emerged and quickly took the shape of another armchair. He then placed the staff back against his seat.

"Please, sit down"

Rose hesitated for a moment, then did as he had asked. The chair was surprisingly comfortable and, creepily, disturbingly warm.

"A great sight indeed. I had missed it"

"So this isn't the first time you leave your book"

"Oh, no. This is my seventh visit"

"And how is it like, inside a book?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand your question"

"Do you turn into a set of ink-written sentence and stay like that until you leave again?"

She was actually quite sure that wasn't the case, but it seemed a good way to explain what she was talking about.

"Oh, so that is what you mean. No, the inside of a book is a world on its own. Though it may have little to nothing in common with this one"

"A... a whole world?"

"Indeed"

"And... how do you go back and forth?"

"As you have probably guessed, I am a magician. After a long time, my studies led me to the discovery of a peculiar bridge, in a place which I would say doesn't exist within the normal world. Crossed that bridge, I found myself here" He stopped for a moment, a soft laugh escaping his fleshless mouth "I was so confused back then, I probably looked like a child lost in a foreign village. Space travel had always been considered impossible, at least in the place I call my homeland, but there I was, clear subject of what seemed to be nothing less than a teleportation. Much to my luck, the librarian wasn't one to be impressed by my appearance. We talked, and he explained to me how to go back to my world. Since then, I've come here approximately once every fifty years"

"Wait a moment, a bridge? As in, a physical, actual bridge?"

"I like to consider myself as an expert in the field of magic. Because of this, I find it quite embarassing to admit that even after having crossed it many times, I still don't comprehend its nature"

Silence. She didn't have any specific expectations about what he would have told her, but he still managed to surprise her. Though, given how she had gotten there, she should have expected at least one on those details. But that was another story.

"And... why do you keep coming here?"

"This" he replied as he waved his hand at the sky. "All of this. The last living tree disappeared from my world many, many years ago, and the sky is no longer blue. There is no water left, and wind is nothing but a memory. When I feel nostalgic, I come here and simply look at all the things my world can no longer offer"

Rose turned her gaze at him.

"That... how can something like that happen?"

"With time"

"But..."

"I don't want to intrude in your job" he said before she could decide what to say "But it seems like I'm no longer the only visitor you have"

After saying that, he pointed at something. It was a bookshelf. One of the small ones placed on the suspended roads. Or, at least, that's what Rose assumed it to be, since it was so far away it was hardly distinguishable from a dot. And considering that her sight was far better than that of normal people, the distance had to be... well, quite great. Regardless of that, though, said dot was falling. Probably from around the twelfth floor, given how high it was when Rose saw it. It hit a few suspended roads and ended up landing on another one, never reaching the floor.

"... well, seems like I have to work then" she said as she stood up "It's been a nice talk. I hope we'll get a chance to continue it"

"If I may" Kematia said before she could actually start walking away "Take this. A little gift from an old man"

It was a rather small, leather bag. It had been left on the side of his chair, and so Rose couldn't see it from her position. She took it and looked inside. The content was...

"Is this dried meat?"

"It is"

"Well... thank you" she replied, a bit surprised.

"Be careful out there. Wouldn't want to see you go hollow" he said, before going back to looking at the sky.

Rose stopped for a moment.

"What?"

"Oh, nevemind. It's just something an old blacksmit used to tell me"

The wind started blowing. Rose looked at him for a few moments, then she walked away.

 _Now, let's see if I can find Ara._

The search lasted around five minutes. Rose knocked at the door of Ara's room. At first there was no response, but just as Rose was about to go look somewhere else, Ara replied. Another couple of minutes, and she came out. For some reason, her hair was still kinda messy. And she looked a bit... tired? Maybe. She wasn't sure.

"Did something happen?" she asked.

"Seems like we have work to do" Rose replied "Probably somewhere on the twelfth floor"

"Oh, ok. Give me a minute. ... three minutes. ... five"

"We're not in a hurry, take your time. We can meet at the Linker's entrance"

"Right"

And with that, she closed the door. Rose got the feeling she was acting a bit weird, but then again, she had first met her less than five days ago. Maybe that was completely normal for her. Brushing off those thoughs, Rose went to her room, took her other weapons -the sniper rifle was the only one she was carrying, to look at the giant tree- , made sure she had with her the vial Oberon gave her earlier, then went to the ivory tree. As for Ara, it took her around fifteen minutes to get there.

"Are you alright?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing"

"What's that bag?"

"A snack, gently offered by our overly educated guest"

"What?"

"Exactly"

"... ok, let's get going"

They spent half an hour looking for the right tree to cross to get to the right floor, then spent roughly four more hours walking aimlessly on the said floor, occasionally taking a small detour, it they could be called that, since they had no path to follow to begin with, on the eleventh or thirteenth floor. Then they stopped.

"I'm starting to think the main problem of this job is finding what we have to deal with, rather than actually dealing with it"

"Seems so"

"Want to eat something?"

"It's not a bad idea"

They sat down next to each other, resting their backs against a rather large tree, and took out the dried meat. It had been cut into long, a bit narrow stripes. The meat itself had a rather weird color: greenish, with a few faintly blue spots here and there.

"... what animal did he say this meat is from?"

"He didn't say anything about it"

"Are we sure this is edible?"

"I don't think Oberon would let inside the house someone who gives unedible food without warning" Rose replied as she bit the stripe. She munched it a bit, then said "You know, if you ignore the fact that it has the same consistency of a wet sponge, it tastes quite good"

Ara looked at the meat she was holding.

"The part about the wet sponge is a bit... well, whatever" and she bit it. "... mh, you're right, it has a nice taste"

There were around a dozen stripes of meat in the bag, and they ate two and a half each, then they restarted their wandering. This time, however, they found something. An irregular groove in the floor, around three meters wide and twenty centimeters deep. On the side of it were a few books, all still closed, fallen from the shelves, which were sloping, as if something big had bumped against them while passing by. Truth be told, the laws of physics should have made those bookshelves fall, given their slant, but for some reason that wasn't happening.

"It sure is big" commented Ara.

"Seems so"

"How did something this large not cause a mass migration of birds?"

"That's a nice question"

By the look of it, whatever it was that left the groove had come from one of the suspended roads, one of the large ones, and then headed away from them. They followed that unusual road for a good couple of hours -though this time they were quite tense about what they would have found- before reaching what they were looking for. At first they wasn't sure what it was, but after walking along its side, it became quite clear. It was a sort of giant snake, or a worm covered in dark blue scales. It looked like its womb wasn't covered by the scales though, and dark purple skin was visible. It was probably around seven meters large, and there was a noticeable amount of old scars and missing scales on it, as well as a few wounds which looked more recent. It wasn't moving, which probably meant it was sleeping. They kept walking alongside it, and reaching the head took them longer than expected. They also turned a few corners before reaching it. The saurian head was quite big, even considering how big the body was, and seemed to be protected by not only the scales but also by an exoskeleton. The mouth, wide open, was noticeably large, and inside of it they could see four rows of large teeth decorated by old-looking pieces of meat of varying size. Some teeth were broken. There was also something which looked like a trio of tongues, with a few scars over them. One seemed to have been torn away a long time ago. They could locate its eye sockets, six in totals, two of which had been caved out by an old injury, but his eyes were closed. They could feel -and hear- its breath, and also smell it. It wasn't a good smell though. Judging by the amount of drool which was there, it probably hadn't moved for a while.

"It seems... old" commented Rose.

"I was thinking the same thing"

"So, how do we deal with this thing?"

"Good question"

They stood there, wondering what to do, for a few minutes. And then, the creature raised its head a little. Well, a little compared to its size, which is to say, almost a meter, and started... coughing? No, that wasn't it. Its eyes were still closed. Ara and Rose moved to the side. After observing it for a while, what was happening became quite clear.

"It's not puking, right?"

"It would seem so"

Ara decided to go a bit farther away, just in case, and Rose followed her. However, what the creature did wasn't puking. It brought its jaws closer to the ground, and then from its mouth came... an egg. Rose and Ara looked at each other for a few moments, surprised. The snake-like creature's head wobbled in front of the egg for a few seconds, and then it fell down, motionless. The two girls waited for a while, but nothing happened.

"I'll go take a look" said then Ara.

"Alright"

Rose took out her sniper rifle and aimed it at the head. Truth be told, she was sure the caliber of that weapon was far too small to actually injure something that big, but a bullet in the eye would have probably been enough to at least distract it. Ara slowly approached it. After getting close enough, she stopped and turned.

"It's not breathing. I think it's dead"

"Really?"

Rose walked up to her.

"It's true, it's not breathing"

Then they walked up to the egg. It was twice their size, grey with a few purple veining here and there, and covered in saliva. They stared at it for a few moments, then turned back to the creature. Which was turning into ink.

"Dead it is" commented Rose as she took a bit of the ink inside the vial.

In a matter of minutes, the creature had completely dissolved. And the egg had started to shake and crack.

"Well... it hatches quickly"

"Maybe too quickly" said Rose while putting her rifle away and pointing her revolvers at it.

"Don't just shoot it the moment it comes out!"

"As you wish" she replied. Without lowering her weapons.

In less than a couple of minutes, a scaled down version of the creature's head came out of the egg. It blinked a few times -with all his six eyes- then smelled the air, as if it was looking for something.

"Guess it's searching it's mother"

The snake, whose body was alsmost as large as Ara's thorax, came out of the egg. It was quite long, probably around six meters or so. The proportion between his body's width and lenght seemed different from that of the mother's. The newborn looked around for a few moments, then locked its gaze on Ara. It slowly approached her, then raised its head, high enough to be right in front of Ara's face. It smeeled her, and then... it licked her, from her toes to her head with a single swipe. Its three tongues, which actually looked more like small tentacles than actual tongues, were smooth to the touch. Rose started laughing.

"Ahahahaha!"

"Ugh! You wouldn't laugh if you were the one covered in drool... it's so slimy..." Ara said as she tried to wipe some off from her face.

The snake slowly pushed its head agaisnt her. Seems like he had some sort of trouble keeping his saliva inside his mouth.

"Oh, stop it" she said as she pushed it back.

Rose kept laughing. The newborn licked Ara again.

"I said stop!" she shouted.

At that, the creature backed off a little and lowered its head.

"Congratulations, Ara, you're a mother now!"

"You're not helping"

Rose wiped off the tears from her face and catched her breath.

"Alright, I'll go look for the book. Why don't you bring the little one back to the house? Jokes aside, I don't know what we're supposed to do with it"

"Me neither"

"Perfect. See you later then"

"Sure..."

And with that, Rose walked away. Ara heard her laughing again. Then she tried to turn around and go back to the house. She could hear it following her. She turned around, and there it was, right behind her. It licked her again.

"Sigh... I'll definitely have to wash these clothes..."

And so she walked back to the Linker, followed by a not-so-small snake-like creature who had mistook her for his mother.

* * *

 **Fifth out.**

 **Sorry for the wait.**

 **And yes, that was a Dark Souls reference.**


	6. Helping a Colleague

**Helping a Colleague**

Ara was standing there, staring at Yeji. That's how she had decided to call the little snake. As for said snake, it was staring at her too. It had been a few hours since it had hatched, the sun would have set soon. Since it couldn't cross the line, and Ara wasn't that sure about inviting it in -she wasn't even sure if all she needed to do to let it inside was really saying "come in" or something along those lines- and so she had decided to wait close to the linker. Rose should have came there after having found the book: she would have asked her to tell Oberon about the snake. The house located there wasn't that big, but at least she got the chance of having a shower and eat something. As for her clothes, she had washed them and left them to dry. In the meanwhile, she was wearing a bathrobe, and over it a large cloak she had found in a wardrobe. Not much, but better than nothing. She had also taken a few pieces of meat to give to Yeji, but when she handed them to it, it looked confused, smelled them, then smelled Ara again. She had somehow managed to stop it from licking her, but it still smelled her every once in a while. After a few minutes, it eventually ate the meat, then it coiled up and... well, went to sleep. Ara decided to have a walk around there, since she had nothing else to do. And, much to her surprise, she met someone. It was the same child she had met the previous day. He was hiding behind a tree while looking at her. Weird. Ara was sure he had turned into ink, which sould mean he had gone back to his book. Had he already left it again?.

"Ehm... hey, little one"

The child came out from his hiding spot, but stopped there. Ara waited a moment, then walked up to him and kneeled down, enough to look him in the eyes.

"So... who are you?"

A brief silence, then beneath the darkness covering his face appeared a mouth.

"R... Rewera" he said while pointing at himself. Then he pointed at her and said "... Ara"

"Yes, that's me. So, uh... how did you get here? We're quite far from where we were yesterday"

The child shrugged, then put an hand under his robe, looking for something. And then he took out a pair of white feathers, long and apparently quite soft, with an unusual blue, decorative motif over them. He handed one to Ara.

"Ara. Gift"

"Oh... thank you..." she replied as she took it. It was really soft to the touch "Say, where did you..."

And then, just like the previous day, the child collapsed into a mass of ink which crawled away.

"H-hey!"

And once again he was gone. And so there she was, holding a feather, without a clear idea about what had just happened. She decided to ask Oberon about that too. Around an hour later, Rose arrived. She found Ara boringly looking at the sleeping snake.

"Still here? And where did your clothes go?"

"I'm not convinced about inviting it inside the line. And I'm not really sure how to do it either. And they're currently drying"

"Now that you mention it, guess you're right"

Ara thought she had heard her laughing softly for a moment. But maybe she was wrong.

"Can you go back and tell Oberon about it?"

"Sure" she replied as she threw two strips of meat at her "These are the last ones. Say, is there anything to drink inside there?" Rose asked while looking at the house.

"Plenty"

"Perfect"

And with that Rose went to the house, drank some water -and maybe something else- and then departed. She sure was walking a lot.

* * *

Far away from there, Oberon and Kematia were walking, headed to the latter's book.

"I had hoped to see some drops of rain as well"

"We're in the wrong season for that. ... say, what took you so long this time? It's been almost a century"

"I'd lost myself in the research"

"Still on the same subject?"

"No, not this time. I was... I am looking for a way to stop the end. Or to escape from it"

"It's weird for you to be here, if that's the case "

"Why so?"

"You're not the kind of person who takes a break when he's working on something importat. And it's hard to imagine something more important than that, especially given your current situation"

Kematia laughed softly.

"I can't deny it"

They reached his book. It was on the ground, but saying it was "open" would have been difficult, since it was nothing more than a few tens of pages held together by three strings. Oberon picked it up.

"Judging by this, I'd say there is less than an year left. Maybe... around nine months, I think" he commented.

"My researches haven't been devoid of results. However, I've found nothing except for what's called the Substitution. And there is something I need to ask you about it"

"I may not be allowed to give you the answer. But go ahead"

Ketamia took a book from under his clothes and showed it to Oberon.

"This is the only manuscript I've found where the Substitution is mentioned, and it is also described in details. What it is and how to put it into effect. This book was written using all the languages I know of my world, as well as those I can't read, and two I've never seen before. I found it in the place I call home. But it hasn't always been there. Rather, it happeared one day. I've verified, and there isn't any other being, alive or undead, beside me left in that world. So, are you the one who left this book there, so that I would find it?"

"No. Going inside the books or sending something is against the rules. I can tell you that a book like that appears in every world, when it is reaching its end. It's something which had been decided a long time ago by the... higher-ups"

"This is not the first time I've heard you mentioning them. Is it possible to meet one of them?"

"I can't say anything more about them. It would cause serious troubles for my mistress"

"I see"

Kematia put the book back under his robe, then took what was left of his book from Oberon. Roots growed from the pages and on his hand, and started... it was a bit like they were drinking him.

"Is this a farewell?"

"I plan to come here one more time, at the very least"

"Until next time then"

"Until next time"

And then, Kematia disappeared inside the pages. Oberon picked them up and put them back on the shelf.

"Please" he said "Don't make me dig another grave"

And then he walked away.

* * *

The sun had almost set when Rose found Oberon sitting in the main room of the house. For some reason, he was sitting on the floor, his back against a piece of furniture.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"Truth be told, it's still ongoing" she replied, and then she summarized what happened.

Oberon stood up.

"Alright, show the way"

When they reached the other house they found Ara, who had changed back into her usual clothes, poking the young snake with the pole of her spear. As for Yeji, it was curiously smelling the weapon. When she saw them she turned and walked up to them. The snake followed her and stopped right before the line. Seems like he understood that he couldn't get past it.

"Rose told me what happened"

"Then, what should we do with it?"

Oberon looked at it.

"Whatever you want"

"Eh?"

"You have already closed the book, right?" he asked Rose.

"Yes"

"And since he wasn't born yet, he's not linked to his world"

"It works this way?" Ara inquired.

"To be precise, when his mother died here after giving birth and the book got closed, the link broke. This happened because his link was still weak, since he had only been conceived, not given birth. A rare occurrence, but it's not the first time it happens"

"So... wait, it's a male? How can you tell?"

"I've read a book about them once, and that species is relatively common on this floor, it's... probably the seventh time one comes out, since I started working here"

"In short, we have to keep it" said Rose.

"If you want"

"So, do you happen to know also what they eat?" asked Ara.

"You mean he has eaten nothing yet?"

"No, not that. It's just... he gave me a weird look when I fed him some meat"

"That's because he was waiting for you to die. They usually don't lay eggs like that, unless near death. And when they do, the newborn feeds on the corpse of the parent. That's probably why he was confused: he instinctively knew you were supposed to die soon"

"You know, now I think I would have done just fine without knowing it"

"Well, if that's all" said Rose "What about having dinner?"

"That's a nice idea"

"So, what are you going to do with him?" asked Oberon.

Ara stopped for a moment.

"... is he dangerous? I mean, when he grows up, will he be a problem?"

"Not really, if you treat him well when he's young. They usually get quite smart as they grow up"

"Then..."

Ara walked back to Yeji.

"So, uh... "come in"?"

The snake -which actually was a limbless dragon, but for one reason or another Oberon didn't tell them about it- was slightly swinging his head. Ara gestured him to come closer, and after a bit he seemed to understand. It moved a bit forward and then moved his head slowly, carefully, to make sure he could really get past the line. Once he had verified the wall was no longer there, he went to Ara's side, pushed his head against her chest -Ara was kind of letting that slide, since it was way better than getting covered in droll- and then moved to her side.

"I hope I won't regret this..."

"Have you ever kept a pet?"

"No"

"Me neither"

Ara turned.

"... where did Rose go?"

"She's gone ahead"

"Then, before we go too..."

And then she told him about the hooded child, both the first and the second encounter. Oberon listened in silence to her actually quite short story.

"A feather?"

"Yes, this" she replied as she pulled it out from underneath her coat and showed it to him.

He took it.

"Do you mind if I keep this for a while?"

"Eh? I mean, no, it's fine, but why?"

"There is something I want to be sure about. Also, be careful about that child"

"... ok..."

After that, nothing special happened. Roughly for four days, during which the only thing to leave its book was a sort of white, giant, frog-legged grasshopper, which Rose shot down after half an hour of uselessly running after it. Eun kept leaving the house at night to have a walk, and she also stopped to have a drink with Oberon a couple of times, thought they didn't talk much, if at all. Ara spent most of her time strolling in the underground library, looking for something interesting to read. Always with Yeji behind her. He was growing slowly, or rather, he didn't seem to have grown at all, contrary to Ara's expectation. Rose usually was in her room, tinkering with either her weapons or some other gear. And then the night of the fifth day arrived. Oberon was sitting alone at the table, or rather on the floor near the table, in the main room, reading a book alone. He hadn't managed to repair the tracking sistem yet. It was starting to get frustrating. However, there was only one place he had yet to check, but since doing that would have taken some time, he planned to do it later, probably in the afternoon. As for Rose, she was most likely sleeping, while Eun had already left. Apparently, Yeji could easily tell her apart from Ara, and at first he was reluctant about following Eun around. But he ended up never leaving her, just like he did with Ara. It was then, that a small written message appeared on the black screen, accompanied by the ring of a bell.

'02:36, 138, 713201, 42097, The Betrayer: Hey Obe, ya there?'

Oberon closed the book, walked to the table and tapped it. Where he touched it, a keyboard appeared on it, like an image on a screen. He started typing. Another message appeared on the screen.

'02:37, 138, 713201, 42097, The Servant: I'm here, Ignia'

'Ok, great. Mind coming here?'

'What do you need?'

'There's an Anomaly'

'What about McGard and Karis?'

'Out getting a couple of jobs done'

'Alright then'

And after that, Oberon typed something else, grabbed his bladed tonfas, which he had left resting against a chair, and then got on the table. After a few moments, its surface began to ripple, as if it was water. And then he sank into it, just like he would have done in a lake. He fell on his feet though, on a table identical to the one he had just sunk into. Now, however, he was in a different place. A room twice as large than the one he was in. It looked like the mansion of a noble, filled to the brim with refined furniture, statues, paintings, ornaments and carpets. On some walls had been painted decorative motives. The prominent colors were red, a slightly dark one, and bright gold. The only cool color in sight was the brown of the parquet. Birds were represented everywhere inside there: painted on the walls, carved in the furnitures, on the carpets, on the paintings, as statues. Also, they were always the same bird: a majestic one, somewhat resembling an hawk, but with several unusually long feathers behind the head, on the back, on the wings and on the tail. Its had a less sharp but longer beak, a much longer tail, a second pair of wings, folded in most of its rapresentations, four red eyes and a flamboyant plumage with too many shades of red, yellow and orange to count them all. Lastly, there was a girl next to the table. Most of her incredibly long hair was tied behind her head, with a large black ribbon, whose shape somewhat resembled a butterfly, in a ponytail, with another red ribbon bow near the end of it to keep it together. Her hair was so long that the end of it was resting on the floor. Also, it was hard to tell if her hair was pink or red, since it was of a particularly pale shade. Her eyes, on the other hand, were undeniably red. She used a thin, golden tiara as hair clip. On her hears were two orange, crystal-shaped earrings. She was wearing a tight shirt, of a red so dark it could actually have been brown and bright red on the lower helm, while her chest was covered by a bright red piece of clothing whose shape was similiar to that of a sport bra, with the difference that this one had a cleavage cutout roughly as large as her fist and reached all the way to her neck, at the base of which was a peculiar hairpin. Her arms were covered by red, long, detached large sleeves, brighter near her hands and the same color of her shirt on the helms, yellow on the inside. They had an unusual shape, which resembled either a flame of a plumage, or rather, both. The two sleeves, as well as the hood behind her head, were a single piece. She was wearing a pleated miniskirt with the same colors of the shirt, while her legs were covered by bright red thighhighs with an irregular upper edge. A small part of her skin was left exposed between them and the skirt. She was wearing high boots, brown and orange on the helms. On her back was a long, ciseled staff. And for some reason, she had a somewhat large, dark red, pointed hat with a wide brim behind her neck, with two golden, closed eyes decorating it as well as a golden hatband. The hat was kept in place by a small, yellow string. As for why she had both an hat and an hood, there probably wasn't a real answer.

"Yo, Obe"

"Hello, Ignia" he replied as he got down the table.

"How 'ya doin'?"

"Do you actually care about that?"

"Yeah, no, right"

"You said there is an Anomaly"

"There is" she replied as she started walking away.

Oberon followed her through a few rooms, a couple of hallways and three stairs, each more opulent than the other, until they reached what seemed to be a mixture between a balcony and a garden, not any smaller than the room Oberon had arrived in. Truth be told, that was actually part of the roof. Seems like the sun had already risen there. Aside from grass, there were several fruit trees and berry bushes, as well as a particularly high tree with large branches, which had been used by a small flock of birds, around a dozen specimens, to build a nest. They were just like the one represented inside the house. The smaller one was roughly twice the same size of an horse, while the biggest one was at least three times bigger than that. When they saw Ignia and Oberon, two of them came flying down. If Oberon had to name something he liked about that place, that would have been the sight of those birds. They landed in front of Ignia, and one lowered its head enough for her to pet it.

"It should be, relatively speakin', close, but I ain't sure. The damn thing keeps crawling around like an headless chicken"

"It should?"

"The tracking system broke, and we haven't managed to fix it yet. So freakin' annoying"

"It broke here too?"

"Why, it's broken in the east as well? Actually, later. There's work to do"

One of the two birds walked up to him, and he mounted it. Ignia was already on the back of the other. There were no reins, so they had to simply hold on to them. The two birds opened their wings, and took flight at amazing speed. They quickly left the imposing mansion they were in behind. From there it was easy to see that it was, at least on the outside, five or six times bigger than the house Oberon -and now Rose and Ara too- used. It was placed on top of a cliff. Oberon took another look at the scenery, even though that wasn't his first time being there. The place was exactly as big as the library he was allocated to, but this one was completely different, and because of that it also looked bigger. A massively large open space, with hundreds of floating islands in the sky, some rather small, others incredibly large, some linked to each other by massive tendrils. On most of the island could be seen waterfalls: the water dissolved in the air way before it could reach the ground though, as if it was mist. There were rivers flowing in the air just like they would have done on the ground. On some islands were greenwoods or lakes, but the floor was a single, massive forest, so large is was almost scary. Hidden somewhere were the white trees of the Linker, though those weren't connected with the ones in the library where Oberon worked. Of course, bookshelves were everywhere. After almost an hour they reached another bird, which was flying in circles over a floating island mostly covered by trees, far below them.

"We're 'lmost there!" Ignia shouted. Simply talking would have meant not being heard, given how loudly the wind was at that height and speed.

Oberon tightened his grasp right before the two birds began the swoop. When they got close enough to the trees they opened all their wings and glided over them, until they found a glade, where they landed. Oberon and Ignia dismounted, and she patted the two birds on the head. Soon the third bird landed next to her.

"Alright, I'll call ya two once we're done here"

The two birds emitted a shrill sound, then took flight.

"Where?" she then asked to the third one. By the look of it, a short conversation took place before the bird departed, reaching the other two in the sky.

"That way" she then said as she pointed to a small path in the woods.

Oberon simply started walking, with Ignia at his right.

"Do you know where it should be heading?"

"Nope'"

The forest was a rather normal one, aside from the bookshelves placed a bit everywhere. If anything, the plants were a bit bigger than normal and blocked a good deal of sunlight, there was an unusually high amount of flowers -most of which were also bioluminescents, maybe to compensate for the relative lack of light- and there was an absolute lack of life inside there. Well, there were flocks of small birds, but those were fake.

"How did it appear?" he asked.

"Beats me"

"How do you know where it's headed?"

"Them" she replied as she pointed to the sky "I've had it under surveillance, and there's still one following it"

"When did they become so tame?"

"They didn't. They like me"

And then they stopped talking, with nothing but the sound of their footsteps following them, Ignia occasionally raising her head to the sky. After a while she finally saw the bird following the Anomaly, and they started following it.

"It should be close" she said.

Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes later, they found a trail of ink stains on the ground. It seemed to be fading into the air, as if it was mist, and not too slowly. They both slowed their pace and took out their weapons. Well, Ignia's staff didn't really look like a weapon, but that's what she had. The trail took a turn to the right, leaving the path and heading down an hillside, covered in a not too thin fog. There probably was a river nearby, as they could hear the sound of flowing water. The downhill was rather large, and the roots of the trees were uncomfortable to walk over, but they also provided a steady support. Before they could reach the end of the hillside, Oberon gestured Ignia to stop. His pupils adjusted to better focus the Anomaly through the haze.

"Ya see it?"

"Yes"

Oberon's eyes changed color.

"It's behind two... three trees. Judging by its shape and size, it hasn't eaten anything yet. But it's rather large. Around... almost two times a brown bear" he said with a low tone "We need to move from here. There is a shelf in the way"

"'kay" she replied as she followed Oberon. After a dozen or so of steps, he stopped.

"Here is fine"

Ignia didnt' reply, instead she placed an hand on one end of her staf.

"How far?" she asked.

"Between twelve and sixteen meters"

A flame was given birth on her hand, and she slowly ran it along the staff, all the way to the other end, leaving a trail of silent flames behind. Ignia closed her eyes as she clenched her hand around the head of her staff. The flames grew bigger, and then they took the shape of a long, narrow blade. The form was rather stable. She pointed it towards her. Her eyes were still closed.

"To the right" Oberon guided her "More... more... stop, a bit to the left now... there. Right in front of you"

"Distance?"

"Fifteen to nineteen meters. Make it twenty three"

Ignia grasped the staff with both hands and raised it above her head. Her eyes were still closed. To get a clean cut on it through the obstacles and from that distance she needed a good deal of concentration. The flaming blade on top of the staff grew longer and longer, eventually piercing the vegetation above them but without setting it on fire. Keeping the flames from spreading on the plants, in order to not warn it of their presence, was actually much easier than keeping them in shape. The fire was born free, and it didn't like restraints. It took her around half a minute to reach the right length, and another half to fully stabilize the form.

"Turn to the left. A bit less... there. Strike"

And so she did. With a single swipe, she brought the fire blade down, cutting through everything between it and its target like an heated knife would cut through a piece of warm butter. The plants cut briefly caught fire, but the flames were quickly drawn to the fire blade. Several leaves and branches fell down. Part of a rather large tree got completely cut off. A guttural howl echoed in the forest,

"Injured" Oberon said as he sprinted forward, or rather jumped down the hillside, his eyes going back to their original color.

The flaming blade got quickly pulled back to the head of the staff, which Ignia grasped with one hand. As she did so, the flames died. She opened her eyes, took a small breath and started running. In the meanwhile, Oberon had already reached it. The Anomaly was a black mass of ink whit a form somewhat resembling a misshapen bear. It had six legs, three on the right, two on the left and one on the back, near what seemed to be a deformed wing, and two head, the second one growing out from the mouth of the first one. There were several protuberances on its body, some long enough to resemble tentacles, and a weird amount of differently sized spikes, apparently placed at random. It was slowly dripping on the ground, leaving behind the trail they had found in the forest. Half of its body had been cut off and was now lying on the ground, quickly fading into the hair. The other half was moving some of its protuberances, as well as what was left of the leg on its back, to the side -they didn't have a fixed location on the body, apparently-, where it had been cut, in an attempt to form a new leg, or at least something to sustain its weight and allow it to walk. The first thing Oberon did was cutting off the heads, and then the legs, which started fading. After that, the mass contracted on itself before bursting out in a storm of giant, misshapen spikes. Oberon jumped back and blocked those he couldn't dodje, before cutting them off. Then, the Anomaly ejected something at high speed in the opposite direction, a sort of flying insect, roughly as large as a child. At the same moment, Ignia had arrived. She jumped, using a small bookshelf as footing, to get a clean-throw line, flames engulfing her right arm. She didn't need much concentration this time. The fire was born free, and going wild is what it did best. The flames gathered on her hand, and she threw them at the fleeing Anomaly. They reached it in the blink of an eye, catched it within themselves and then exploded, roaring. This time, the forest caught fire. They heard the sound of a frog croaking. Oberon finished dealing with what was left of the now motionless thing. Which means, he made sure that all of it had started fading, and stood there staring at it until all of it had disappeared. As for Ignia, she had run right into the fire. A large flame bent down from the tree it was consuming, and apparently bowed down at her. She ran her hand over it, as if to caress the fire.

"Good work. But don't get too carried away. Five minutes, not too much more ... and spread in that direction" she said to it as she pointed her hand away from there, before walking back to Oberon.

"That one has been erased"

"The other one too. It was a small one" Oberon replied, then he looked at the forest. Seems like Ignia wanted to let the fire have some fun. Well, at least she had told it not to spread towards them. As much as they didn't affect her, those weren't flames he could simply stand inside without caring.

"What about goin' back?" she asked.

He simply nodded. Ignia raised her index, put the tip of it on her mouth and then pulled it out. Over it was a small, pale flame, which she threw up in the sky, where it exploded, like a firework. In a few minutes, the two birds they had ridden on came down, forcing their way trough the vegetation, already damaged by Ignia's swipe. They got on their back, and they took flight again. Two more birds were waiting for them in the sky. Before they left, Oberon looked down. The fire would have started to burn out soon. The return journey went exactly like the previous one. When they reached the manor, the largest bird of the flock wasn't there. They dismounted, and the birds went back to their nest.

"Alright, thanks for the help and bla bla bla"

"There's one thing we need to talk about"

"What? Ah, right, the system"

"When did it broke?"

"Almost two months ago"

"Around the same time it broke in my venue. This is weird"

"'lright,'lright, I get it. I'll hear the others to know if they had this problem too"

"Inform me if something happens"

"Sure"

Ignia then went back inside the mansion. As for Oberon, he walked to the edge of the balcony and looked down. From there he could see a large tent, a few meters away from the manor, close to a path which descended the cliff and headed into the forest. But McGard was nowhere to be seen. Seems like he had yet to come back. As for Karis, he wasn't sure he really felt like meeting her at the moment. And so, Oberon simply walked back to the black table, typed something, and went back, sinking into the table once again. And there he was, back. He looked at a window. It was morning, but still earlier than it was at the other venue. Since he had nothing else to do, and the concept of fatigue didn't really apply to him, not normally at least, he started making breakfast. He hoped for the system breaking at the same time in two different venues to be nothing more than a coincidence. If that wasn't the case, the meeting would have been almost surely anticipated, which meant Ara and Rose would have met the owner sooner than expected. Truth be told, he would have preferred for the two of them to encounter him as late as possible. It was probably better to tell them how to act in front of him, and what not to do, though he had planned to do so later. But upsetting Glaive would have been a huge mistake. Even traumatizing, if things went wrong. If possible, he had to prevent that from happening.

* * *

 **Sixth done.**

 **Thank you for reading.**


	7. I'll Save You a Seat

**I'll Save You a Seat  
**

Rose was already eating when Ara entered the main room, Yeji following her. She yawned, then waddled up to a chair, sat down and started eating, still too sleepy to look what it was that she was biting. That is, warm brioches. She instinctively grabbed a bunch and gave them to Yeji who, after a first dubious bite, began eating.

"You sure are bad at waking up" commented Rose.

"Mmh... I guess..." she replied while yawning again.

As for Oberon, he was sitting -on a chair- and reading a book. He waited until the two girls had finished eating, and Ara had completely woken up, then closed the book and spoke.

"There is something I should tell you" he said.

They turned to him.

"It's likely that the owner, Glaive, will pay us a visit in a few days. You'll recognize him right away, he wears a mask, has white hair and only one eye. For your own good, you must do nothing to upset him. He is rather hard to deal with, and he will surely say things you don't want to hear, but despite that, you must never disrespect him. The consequences would be... unpleasant"

Ara and Rose looked at him, rather surprised.

"What do you mean with things we don't want to hear?" the blonde asked.

"I think saying he will make fun of you would be relatively accurate"

Truth is, he would have preferred telling them exactly what would have probably happened, but his contract didn't allow it. Granted, they were working there, but the contract with Eve wasn't the same as one with Glaive. It was a bit like comparing employment with slavery.

"You said you're quite sure he's not a person some days ago" Ara interrupted them "What is he then?"

"I admit that was a lie. He's not human. Not any more than gravity, or light. I thought it would have been better to tell you all of this later, but something unexpected came up and you will most likely meet him sooner than I had initially expected. That's why I'm telling this now"

"Why are you so worried?"

"Because upsetting him would probably be the worst mistake you'd ever make"

"Well" said Rose "If it's for that, I don't think I can beat my record of foolishness"

"What do you mean?" asked Ara.

"Oh, nothing. A little something I did during my previous job"

Then they heard something, and turned towards the wall. Yeji was staring at a window, occasionally hitting the wall below it with his head. It was raining.

"Now that I think about it, he has never seen the rain" Ara said as she got up.

"Why don't you take him out for a walk then?" asked Rose.

"Well... that's really not a bad idea" she replied. Then, after finding an umbrella, she walked to the door, opened it, called Yeji, who crawled up to her immediatly and went outside, and left. Twenty seconds later she came back the door, which she had left open.

"See you later" she said before closing it.

Oberon began cleaning the table, while Rose went back to her room. Though she came back a few minutes later, walked to the table and rested her back against one of the bookshelves hanging from the ceiling.

"Say, do you have any plans for the day?"

"Only for the afternoon" he replied.

"Then" she said while raising one hand "Do you mind lending me your morning?" she asked in a rather persuasive voice.

From her index was hanging the same pair of handcuffs Oberon had seen in her room a few days before. He looked at her for a second or two.

"Not at all" he replied.

Rose smiled, then walked back to her room. Oberon finished tidying the table, which took him around a couple of minutes, then followed her. She found her sitting on a chair, at the main table of the room, the handcuffs resting on it, the key right next to them. He took a look around, something he didn't really do the other time he had been there. The bookshelf had been used to place mechanical parts and tools, as well as some electronic components. There were some also on a few of the drawers. The suitcases had been left piled on each other in an angle, except for one which was slightly sprouting from under the bed. On the desk were her weapons, alongside five wrenches, a few screwdrivers and a tool Oberon wasn't able to name. The windows had all been closed, and the curtains too.

"There's one thing I've forgot to ask you" she said "The windows have a casement stay to keep them closed, but how do you lock a door here?"

"Now that you mention it, I've never explained that to you or Ara" he replied as he sat in front of her "With this" he said as he pulled a rusty, broken key from his pocket.

"That's..."

"Only broken keys work here. It's something a previous librarian decided, and since then nobody has been bothered enough by it to ask the owner to change it. Any key work, as long as it's broken. That can be changed too though"

"Then, I know that Ara isn't home right now, but would you mind...?"

"Sure" Oberon said as he got back up and locked both the front and the back doors. When he turned, Rose was standing against the table, her hands resting on it.

"Very kind of you" she commented, a soft smile on her face.

Oberon placed an hand over the switch of the candles, but rather than pressing it, he turned it clockwise a bit. The candles didn't go out, but their flames grew a bit weaker. That was something he hardly ever did, which is why he had forgotten to tell them about it.

"Quite romantic" she said.

Oberon took off his gloves, walked up to her and leaned forward a bit, placing an hand on the table, right next to hers. Their faces were close, almost enough for their noses to touch. He placed his free hand on her shoulder, and slowly ran it up to the back of her head. He was cold, but not to the point of making his touch uncomfortable. Actually, it was rather pleasant. He took her hairpin, and carefully pulled it out from her hair, which fell down. It was surprisingly long once let loose, enough to partially cover her shoulder blades. Rose placed her hands on his face, and they both pulled each other in. For a moment she wondered if his hair was smoother than hers, but immediatly scrapped that thought and focused on their kiss. Much to her pleasure, he wasn't one of those who, when kissing, use nothing but the tongue while forgetting about the existence of lips. Their mouths parted briefly and met again, as he ran an hand on her waist, along the sash, and followed it all the way to the ribbon behind her back. He undid it and let the whole sash fall down, then untucked her kimono, which also got unfolded as a result, while Rose opened his shirt, closed with a metal zipper rather than with buttons. Beneath it he was wearing an undershirt. Oberon then grabbed her, lifted her up and placed her down on the table, her legs dangling from its edge. She laughed softly.

"How am I doing?" he asked.

"Not bad"

He pulled her kimono back and took it off, then brought an hand behind her head and ran his tongue from her clavicle to her neck, then up to her mouth. They kissed again. Rose's face was getting flushed. He helped her take his undershirt off, revealing his toned chest, then he started kissing her skin softly at the base of her neck, and moved down from there, until he reached her bra. He gently bit it and moved it up, revealing her breast, slightly bigger than average, as he gently ran his hands on her sides, eventally reaching her rear with one of them. Rose was simply enjoying it, and when he started licking her nipple she closed her eyes, to focus on it. Then, her wrists got moved back, and she heard a click.

"My, my, aren't we sneaky?"

"I thought you would have liked it more this way"

"You're not wrong" she replied as she smiled, moving her hands around a bit behind her back. The chain wasn't too long, at most like her open hand, and was an effective binding.

He pulled her closer as he started massaging her breast, not just the nipple, varying from a gentle to a rather rough touch, occasionally biting softly on her nipples. He then ran a finger down her belly, slipped his hand under her skirt and placed it over her panties. They weren't dry. He kept playing with her breast as he began teasing her through her underwear. She was starting to sweat, and her breath was getting a bit ragged.

"You can be... a bit rougher... master..." she said in a suadent voice, a playful smile on her face.

He wondered if she had started using that name when referring to him only as a build-up for that occasion, before replying.

"As you wish" he said as he slid two fingers inside her and started moving them around a bit.

As more juices coveded his fingers, he inserted two more, but slowed down the movement a bit. He switched his focus back on her breast, and bit down on them before sucking on her nipple. He was enjoying her pantings, her red face and her aroused expression. As for Rose, she was enjoying the treatment he was giving her. Oberon moved back a bit, and took off her panties, leaving her skirt on, then grabbed her and sat down on a chair, placing her on top of him. They kissed again, entwining their tongues, and when their lips parted he gulped some of her saliva. For some reason, that aroused her even more. He went back to playing with her breasts, while Rose tried to move her hands to her entrance, but Oberon stopped her with one hand, though he wasn't sure how much she could do in that position, with the handcuffs on. He kept teasing her for a bit more, then changed position again, placing her on the chair while he kneeled on the floor in front of her. He then moved his face under her skirt, and started gently licking her entrance. The coldness of his tongue enhanced the feeling, and the fact that the skirt was preventing her from actually see what he was doing made Rose even more excited.

"Mmmh... there..."

He moved up a bit and teased her clit with his tongue as he pushed three fingers inside her. Rose's moans got a bit louder, her chest heaved rapidly and her hands grasped the chair. He kept stimulating her until her pantings speeded up. Then, he stopped. She could still feel his fingers inside her, but he was completely still. Her breath steadied a bit, and he came out from under her skirt, licking her juices off from his fingers.

"... master?" she asked.

Oberon walked to the bed, sat down on it and gestured her to come closer. Seems like he knew how to play his part. She stood up and walked up to him, swaying her hips a bit. He enjoyed her motion. When she got in front of him, he pulled her down on the bed, her face down, and ran an hand over her butt, while holding her down with the other. He then started teasing her clit again, and once again he stopped when her breathing got too quick. He liked the way she panted. He moved his other hand away, and Rose turned around to get on her back.

"You sure know... how to keep a woman on the edge..." she said, her breath slowing down a bit "Shall we get... to the main event?"

"Of course" he replied as he leaned down on her.

He placed an hand on her side while he used the other as support, and kissed her. While their tongues entwined, she felt him slowly entering her. His body was rather warm now, though it still felt cold against her hot flesh. He moved an hand over her breasts and fondled them as he accelerated the pace a bit. Their lips parted, and he began licking her neck. Rose closed her eyes and focused only on her body, savoring the tingling sensation which was spreading throughout her body. She started panting again, until she eventually held her breath. She felt light-headed and light as her body tensed up, a pulse running through her once, twice, three times. During her orgasm Oberon kept moving, albeit slower, and focused on her chest. Rose then released her breath, her body relaxed, the feeling still lingering in her. He stopped moving, and they kissed again. They stood there like that for a while, then he pulled out. Rose was taking some deep breaths. He walked to the table, took the key and went back to Rose, unlocking the handcuffs. Then they sat next to each other on the bed.

"Your skirt got dirty. I should have taken it off, sorry" he said.

"It's not the only one I have, and your clothes aren't really spotless either"

He was actually unsure about what to say now.

"Say, do you mind doing it again one of these days? I have... some other things there" she said, hinting at the suitcase under the bed with her head.

"If you want" was all he replied.

A brief silence.

"... did you like it?" she asked.

 _How should I put it?_

"I... to be frank, I don't perceive pleasure. No, that's wrong. Most physical stimuli beyond a certain... threshold are reduced, roughly by ninety five percent. That's the reason I have control over some unconscious functions. Like salivating, if you want an example"

"That's why you didn't seem completely into it"

"No, that's not it"

"No? Why then?"

He turned to her.

"I couldn't shake off the feeling that you were doing this to see how much I would have resembled an human"

Another brief silence. They stared at each other's eyes.

"... you're not completely wrong. Sorry"

"Don't be. I shouldn't care about something like this. At the very least, I should be used to it by now" he replied.

"But... why did you do it if you don't feel pleasure?"

"Exactly for that. I like to see how others react to things I perceive as little more than simple informations. I guess"

Once again, silence. A longer one.

"So, how would you like our next time to be?" he asked then as he got up.

"I haven't thought about that yet" she replied.

Oberon grabbed his clothes, walked to one of the two doors and unlocked it, then went to the others. He stopped in front of him and turned his head to Rose.

"I liked your expressions" he said.

"I liked your touch. Master"

And then he walked out, wondering if she was really going to keep calling him like that. He entered the main room, and from there went to his one, to get a change of clothes. And maybe have a shower. At least, that was the plan. But he stopped right before hopening the door, and turned around.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

Ara came out from behind the kitchen.

"Ehr, uh... how did you notice?"

Oberon pointed to Yeji's tail, which was in plain sight. Seems like the little snake forgot to hide it. Ara looked at him for a moment, then turned to Oberon.

"... sorry"

"For what?"

"I've... well, I came back a while ago, and thought I'd ask Rose if she wanted to look at the rooms in the basement together, but the door to her room was locked. I tried the other one, but it was locked too, and since you weren't around either I thought you were... well... I mean, a few day ago you two..." she said, her face getting more and more red as she spoke.

Oberon scratched the back of his head.

"I get it" he said "I'll ask Rose if i can get a seat for you for the next time"

"Oh, grea... wait, what?"

Oberon then walked away. Ara stood there for a few moments, a bit dumbfounded, then bent down in front of Yeji and started scratching his head.

"... am I really a voyeur?"

 _Ara, are you sure about this?_ Eun asked in her head.

"I... I don't know"

* * *

Lunch went by silently. Rose understood that Ara knew what happened by the way she looked at her and Oberon. Had he told her about it? No, that didn't seem likely. Well, it wasn't really a problem for her after all, so she didn't care that much. Rose spent the afternoon in the underground library, looking at what kind of books -normal books- they had down there, while Ara got forced out of the house by Yeji, who apparently enjoyed the rain too much not to go out during it. As for Oberon, he was in the basement too, but in one of the two rooms Ara had yet to see. It was rather small, around nine meters square, and looked like -or rather, it was- a control room, illuminated only by the intense blue light of the monitors. On each of the side walls were were two control panels , with a few small monitors between them and larger ones on the upper side of the wall. The wall opposite to the door, however, had only one panel, with a single monitor covering the wall above it. On the screens countless words and symbols appeared and disappeared at blinding speed. There was no need for an operator there, and so that room was hardly ever used. On the floor, right after the door, were four yellow lines, like the one delimiting the safe zones in the library. Oberon walked to the main panel and pulled a lever, then kneeled down in the middle of the room. A trapdoor slid open in front of him. He descended the ladder and found himself inside another room, around the same height as the upper one but at least five times larger, covered by hundreds of cables, to the point they completely covered the floor, the walls and the ceiling, except for the trapdoor. They were of several different sizes, materials and colors, some also having a sort of decorative pattern painted over them. He started each and every one for damage. He wasn't really sure what kind of damage he was looking for, since the system didn't report any anomaly, but there had to be one. It was a slow work, since the cables themselves were in the way, and in the worst case he would have had to check literally all of them. Luckily, that wasn't the case. After roughly two hours he found something. He was holding a small, green cable, which he had pulled out from the tangle. It had outstrenched like an elastic. A small part, not longer than his fingers, had been cut off and replaced with a mechanical component he didn't recognize: a small, metallic tube with a red, flashing slide on it. The damage itself was extremely easy to fix. He simply took off that component, stuck two fingers inside the cable and grabbed a small wire inside of it, then pulled it out and brought it to the other part of the cable. The wire got dragged into it. He repeated the process a dozen or so of times, and then the two parts started coming back together on their own. A few hours and the system would have gone back to its normal functions. He let go of the cable, climbed back up and closed the trapdoor, then walked out of the room. He had hoped for Rose and Ara not to meet Glaive but, ironically, now he had to call him, which would have most likely resulted in their meeting. But someone had tampered the system, and that was something Glaive had to know as soon as possible.

* * *

 **Seventh out.**

 **If you'd be so gentle as to drop a comment, I'd appreciate some feedback.**

 **See you around.**


	8. Can You Dance?

**Can You Dance?  
**

Nothing happened until dinner, and even that started out rather normally. Truth be told, Ara looked a bit uneasy, but maybe that was only an impression. Rose hadn't asked her anything during lunch, but now she was a bit curious. And since she had no reasons not to ask directly, she went ahead and posed the question.

"So, did you figure it out by yourself?"

"Uh... eh, what?" she replied, after a brief moment during which she came back to the world. Seems like she was lost in her thoughts.

"I mean, about what we did this morning" Rose said while pointing to herself and Oberon with a fork.

Ara remained silent for a couple of seconds, during which her face gradually turned red, before replying.

"Ah, t-that... well, yes, I mean, kind of..."

Rose laughed softly.

"She'd like to watch, the next time" said Oberon. He was eating, something both Ara and Rose had almost gotten used to see.

The blonde moved her gaze back and forth from him to Ara, whose face was actually getting redder, a few times.

"... seriously?"

"I... well, that was a sort of..."

"I..." Rose interrupted her "Well, I've never done it with someone watching, but... it may be interesting, so... ok, I guess it's not a problem"

"... eh?"

"But I didn't expect this from you. I guess you want to see how it is before doing it yourself?"

"... wait, what do you mean?"

"You're a virgin, so I thought that was..."

"I'm not!"

A brief silence.

"... really?" Rose asked, her face showing all of her skepticism.

"Yes! I mean, I've already done it... twice... more like one and two thirds..."

"Two thirds?"

"Anyhow, that's not the point!"

"You know that self sex doesn't count, right?" she asked laughing. She didn't really think the one and two thirds -whatever two thirds could mean in that context- she was talking about were masturbations, she just wanted to tease her a bit.

"I-I know!"

"Anyway, you're right. Besides, this makes things easier I guess. I mean, waiting for you not to be around would have been rather annoying"

"How did we get to this?" Ara whispered to herself.

 _You could have gotten yourself out of this yesterday, you know?_ said Eun in her head.

 _Please don't make me think about that. And don't talk inside my head.  
_

And then, nothing happened for the next two, maybe three hours. Rose and Ara -and Yeji- went back to their rooms, while Oberon remained in the main hall. He had spent most of that time examining the metallic tube he had found in the control room. Once he had finished, he walked up to the black table, and tapped it. Just like the previous time, a keyboard formed on the table's surface, and he started typing. Only a few words, which didn't end up on the screen. Instead, after a minute or so, the light in the room suddenly grew stronger. Then, all the shadows moved to the center of the room, where they clumped together in a single one. As the light's intensity turned back to normal and new shadows replaced the previous ones, the one in the middle of the room turned into a person. A man dressed in a black, long overcoat which completely covered him from his neck to his feet, white on the helms and decorated with a few red, squared lines. He was wearing white gloves, and his face was completely covered by a dark, featureless mask. His left eye was of an intense amber color, to the point it almost seemed to be glowing. Where his other eye was supposed to be was nothing but blackness. He had white, spiky hair, and from the large neck of his overcoat were hanging five bronze padlocks, each linked to a bronze chain. Two more padlocks, still linked with a chain to the neck of his clothes, were placed on his arms, below the shoulders. There were two more chains, longer than the others, hanging freely from the back of the overcoat. He took two steps forward, while keeping his right arm behind his back. Oberon knelt down.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Glaive, but there is something you must be informed of"

"And what would it be?"

"The tracking system has been tampered" he said while showing him the small, metallic tube.

Glaive gestured him to stand up, and opened his left hand. The tube floated to him, and stopped over his palm. He turned it around a bit while checking it, then sent it back to Oberon.

"When did this happen?"

"Most likely nine weeks ago"

"What took you so long to notice it?"

"That component had been added to intercept the signals sent by the tracking system to the main system and replace them with different ones. The scanning system never stopped working, and the tracking one too, though the main system received fake responses from it. Since there was no error in the code and the component was added without removing any part of the system, it went unnoticed by the self scan"

"Launch a full-scale scansion on the library then" was all he replied.

Oberon simply nodded and walked away, headed to the control room. As for Glaive, he started walking around, his gaze never stopping on the same thing for more than a few seconds.

"Now, then... who are those two?" he asked to himself before snapping two fingers.

Eve appeared suddenly in front of him, though she was facing the opposite direction. She was wearing what looked like a lab coat on top of her usual clothes, and was holding an unusually electronic-looking screwdriver while her other hand was covered by a large glove with an usb plug on each finger. She looked around, rather disoriented.

"Eve" he called, and she turned.

"Oh, it's you"

"There are two more people here. Do you have anything to do with that?"

"I've hired them as assistants. For Oberon"

Glaive brought the palm of his left hand to his face.

"Since when do you have the right to choose who works here?"

"Oberon is still my servant" she replied "And I have the right to choose as many assistants as I want for him"

"I knew that contract would have brought me far too many annoyances"

"It's been forty seven years since Ophelia died, and ninety four since Ferdinand's death. I've hired them because you weren't doing it"

Glaive raised his hand, and Eve suddenly got pulled to it. His fingers wrapped tightly around her throat. But when she tried to grab them to open his grasp her hands touched him for a mere instant, before slipping trough him as if he was a ghost.

"Lister well, brat. This is not the first time you mess with things you shouldn't, but if you ever dare to do it again I'll consider it a violation of the contract" he said, then closed his fist around her throat, which got completely crushed.

The sound of metal being crushed echoed in the room, as well as that of several circuits exploding. Something like that wasn't too different from beheading someone. Eve fell down, but she cushioned the fall with one hand while with the other she touched her throat. Against all logic, it was there again. She gasped for air.

"How much do they know?"

"Not... cough... not much..."

Glaive sighed.

"Describe the contract you made them sign then"

Eve had just started getting back on her feet, when Glaive pointed a finger downward. Eve got pushed down against the floor, apparently by nothing.

"I don't remember telling you to stand up. And consider yourself lucky that I'm in a good mood this year"

"It is... an ordinary employment contract, as full time assistants, for a salary, room and board included. I've let Oberon handle the details"

He brought again a palm against his face.

"You're telling me you made them sign an ordinary contract? As in, a completely normal one? For Ink's sake"

He moved two fingers, and whatever it was that was forcing Eve on the floor disappeared. She got up.

"The meeting will be in a few days, I hope you haven't forgotten it. Do I have to pick you up or can you come on your own?"

"I know how to get there" she replied, hiding her grudge.

"Perfect" Glaive said as he snapped two fingers. And just like that he sent Eve back the same way he had taken her from wherever she was. Then he noticed the screwdriver was still there, and snapped his fingers again. It disappeared.

"Now, let's see these two. I hope she had at least the common sense of choosing someone interesting" he said as he moved his fingers to snap them, but stopped right before doing so.

Around a couple of minutes later, Oberon walked back inside the room.

"The scan will start within this hour" he said.

"Bring those two here. One at a time"

An extremely brief silence.

"Immediately"

And then he headed to Ara's room, reached the door and walked in. She was sitting at the table, watching intently the chessboard.

"Ara" he called.

"Wha!" she almost jumped upon hearing him "Ah, it's you. Sorry, I was..."

"Playing chess?"

"Well, kind of I guess?"

"Glaive wants to meet you"

"The owner? Wait, right now?"

He nodded. Ara made a quick attempt at hiding how messy her hair was and adjusted a bit her clothes.

"So, uh..."

Oberon, who had left the door opened, started walking back to the main room. Ara followed him.

"So, what should I do?" she asked.

"Stay calm. And formal. ... and when you greet him, bow down. This will almost surely be a bad experience, but if you upset him it ill become far worse"

"That really doesn't help me stay calm"

When they got back to the main room, Glaive was still there. His gaze was running everywhere with no apparent logic, but once they walked in it locked on Ara.

 _He's... not really how I had pictured him..._

As suggested, she bowed down.

"I'm..."

"Quiet"

Well, that was a bad start. The way his eye moved was weird. It was as if he was reading something, rather than looking at someone. And then, he started laughing. A loud, heartfelt laugh. Ara was rather startled.

"Oh dear dream, she really picked an horrible person. Well, at least the other one seems to be better" he said.

"... excuse me?"

"No, wait... three? Alright, let me see... ah, I get it, Eun is an outsider. And... poor Nari"

Ara froze. How did he know that name?

"You really treated her horribly, pipsqueak. And... oh, don't tell me that is..."

And then he started laughing again, apparently even more amused than before.

"Really, him?! Of all people, him?!"

He then turned to Oberon.

"Alright, alright. Get the other one"

Oberon gave a quick glance at Ara. She was a bit pale, and clearly confused.

"Stay calm" he whispered to her before going to Rose's room.

She stood there.

"How do you know about Nari?"

"I've read about her" he replied.

Galive took a step forward. Next thing she knew, he was right in front of her, his index resting on her forehead. Ara noticed he never moved his right arm from behind his back.

"Let's meet the other two" he said as he literally walked inside her, as if she was a door, or rather the entrance to a cave.

* * *

He took a few steps in a completely empty, white space, then walked out of a sort of giant glass, or rather a set or mirrors arranged to form a sort of prism. He gave a quick glance at his surroundings. A city devoid of people. No, that wasn't a city, though it did somewhat resemble one. The floor was white, as well as each and every building. There were only what seemed to be small, one-floor houses, all around the same size, with only a door and a small hole next to it which probably served as a window. Actually, those didn't look like houses at all. They were more like cubes. There were a few green plants here and there, and aside from the blue sky, they were the only thing not dyed completely white. Upon closer look, he noticed that some of the houses were in a worse shape than the others. Some others were almost falling apart.

"This mind is far less chaotic than I had expected" he commented, rather disappointed "No, wait"

He snapped his fingers, and something appeared. Several towers, small but noticeably high, linked to each other by apparently randomly placed, enclosed bridges.

"That's better. Now, where are those two..."

He walked around for a while. Reading wasn't an easy task when inside someone's mind, and he had never been that good at it, unlike Glade. But he still managed to find where the ones he was looking for were rather easily. He headed to one of the towers, then started walking perpendicularly on the wall. A few steps later, someone grabbed him by his shoulder. A firm grip through which he could perceive confusion, with a little bit of anger and fear.

"You'd better let go of me, pipsqueak" he told Ara without even turning around.

"What are you doing here? And how did you get inside of me?"

"Let go of me. I won't repeat myself again" he said, without hiding his annoyance.

Hesitatingly, she did so. He was getting on her nerves. Actually, given the current situation, the only reason she hadn't done anything reckless was what Oberon had told her.

"Good child" he said as he started walking.

"Wait!"

"Be quiet. All I'm going to do is have a quick chat with the other two" he replied without even turning to her.

Ara stood where she was for a few moments, calming herself down, then started going after him. Having him inside her mind was already unpleasant enough, letting him go around doing whatever he wanted would have been far too much. Glaive looked around, and saw a white fox, a bit larger than an horse, sitting upside down under a bridge, in an higher position than theirs. It had black sclera and dark golden eyes, as well as a few red motives on his fur.

"Found one" he said as he headed it's way.

Once they had reached it, the fox turned to Ara.

"What's going on?"

"I... don't know"

Glaive simply looked at Eun for a few seconds, then turned around.

"Now, where is the other one... there"

He started walking upwards. Eun bared her fangs, but Ara gestured her to stop before following him. Eun clearly didn't like the way she was acting, but still obeyed, and tagged along them. Glaive reached one of the highest bridges, a rather short and inclined one, on top of which was a small cube, apparently not one of the oldest but in a far worse state than most of those he had seen inside there. The door, blocked with a few chains, was partially broken. The same went for the few windows.

"How rude" he commented as he walked up to the door.

"Who are you?" someone asked from inside. Unlike Eun, who had a completely different voice, that person's one was almost identical to Ara's, with the only difference being that it was a little bit more acute.

"You must be Nari"

"Oh, my existence has been acknowledged again. Such a great day" she replied sarcastically "It's bad enough as it is here with the three of us, did you really have to bring someone else inside Ara?"

"Shut up" said Eun.

"Come on, let her talk. Or are you still angry at me for that?"

"I'm not angry at you. You're simply crazy, Nari. That's why you're there" Ara replied.

"Ah! Ahahahahahah! Crazy! Come on, we both are! Besides, I've done far worse things than that, you're perfectly aware of it. And what you did back then was way..."

"Shut up!" she shouted.

"Alright, this is Enough" Glaive said "Your little show is almost entertaining, but I've also other things to so"

And with that, he... apparently evaporated.

* * *

He walked out from inside Ara, who a few moments later suddenly remained out of breath and lost her balance. She managed not to fall, and started catching her breath, rather confused.

"I'll have a good laugh in a few days" he commented "If you don't disappoint me, that is"

"Why..." Ara said while catching her breath "With what right... did you... ?"

"I must say, the fact that you're asking why I did it rather than how is rather amusing"

And then Oberon and Rose walked in from the other door. When they saw Glaive and Ara, Rose stood still for a brief moment, while Oberon walked up to Ara and placed an hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright?"

"Almost... well, not really..."

Glaive turned to Rose.

"... greetings. I'm..."

"Quiet" he said, annoyed by having said that word too much in too little time.

"This one isn't such a bad person it seems... and it's actually only one" he commented as he walked up to her "But I must say, you're a rather stupid one"

"Why?" she asked, without hiding her annoyance at his attitude.

"Shooting the wrong guy because you couldn't even wait is one of the many things I deem stupid"

Rose's fist hit Glaive on the side of the face. Oddly enough, no sound could be heard. Ara looked at the scene, surprised at that outburst, while Oberon quickly walked up to those two. Or so he had intended to do, but Glaive gestured him to stop.

"It's our first meeting, and technically speaking you have no contract with me. I'll let it slide this once" he said, clearly bothered by what just happened.

"I guess I should be grateful" Rose replied.

"Cheeky brat"

Glaive then started walking away, but stopped after a single step and turned back to Rose.

"I must say, there is at least one person who is far more stupid than you"

"And that would be...?"

"A fool who covered up a friend's mistake and ended up executed because of it. Quite the loser. I think he had a scar on his left shoulder"

That's when Rose suddenly, and almost completely, lost her temper. She somehow managed not to jump on him. But spitting on his face was something she couldn't stop herself from doing.

"Don't you dare talk about him like that"

Her saliva disappeared by itself from Glaive's mask, like water on an hot metal.

"Now you've done it, brat" he said as he took a few steps back "I'll enjoy the show before leaving"

"Which show?" she asked, and then she felt something. Something weird.

Oberon rushed to her side, and Ara too, though she didn't really know what was going on.

"Listen to me, Rose. It won't leave you injured. And you won't really be suffocating, nor drowning. I'll try to help you, but it's going to hurt. More than you can imagine. Just push it out, and reach for my hand"

"What are you... ugh!"

Rose fell on her knees, pain spreading from her womb to the rest of her body. Her vision started to dim. No, that's not it. She was starting to see something else on top of what she was seeing, and... was the light dying out? Oberon knelt in front of her. Was she under water? She felt something -it was a fluid, but it definitively wasn't water- entering her lungs, yet she was still breathing normally. Her head started to spin. It was getting dark. So dark she could barely see anything. She was sweating. It was hot, even though she could have sworn she was under water.

"Rose. Rose, listen to me. You're still here"

Pain. An excruciating pain, as if she was being torn apart from inside. She was drowning. She was still breathing normally, but her lungs were full of liquid. She gasped for air. No, she was breathing normally. She wasn't suffocating. She wasn't drowning. Was she drowning? The pain was making it hard to think rationally. It was as if something far too big had somehow got stuck inside her stomach.

"Rose, can you see me?"

No. Did she reply? She heard him, but there was something between them which muffled his voice. It was all black. How far was he from her?

Pain. Darkness. Heat. She was drowning. She was being torn apart. She was being squashed. Suffering. Confusion. The thing inside her stomach grew bigger, tearing it apart as it started to push against her other organs.

"Rose, I'm sorry"

Pain. A new one. Did they stab her? She brought her hands to her belly. She found something. A blade piercing trough her. And nothing. Did she have two bellies?

Pain. Unbearable pain. The blade moved up and down before being pulled out. Someone inserted his hands in her wound. And then she was really torn apart. Her belly was ripped open. She shouted. Did she shout? She heard nothing but a muffled sound.

"Take my hand"

Who was it?

Pain.

Something reached her. A finger. Two. Three. Was that an arm? That was an arm. It was blissfully cold.

Darkness. Heat. She needed air. She was drowning. There was air in her lungs. She was drowning.

"Rose"

She reached for the hand.

"Push, Rose. Push it out"

Push what? She didn't know. But maybe if she did the pain would have disappeared. Would it have ever gone away? It was beyond words. The hand grabbed her shoulder and pulled her. Until she reached something. Was that a wall? No. It was warm. And it didn't feel like a wall to the touch. How did a wall feel?

Pain. Was she shouting? She thought she was. But she couldn't hear herself.

"Push"

As impossible as it was, the pain grew bigger. This time she was sure, she had been torn in two. The hand pulled her once more. There was a light. She pushed. What was she pushing? How? She didn't know. Then, she started getting through that wall. Doing so proved to be incredibly painful. The opening was probably a bit too small for her. She felt it on her skin. Was it a wall? No, it felt more like something else. Was that flesh? She finally got out. Out from what? It was hot. The light was blinding. She was sweating. The pain was still there. Everything turned from black to white. Stench. What was that stench?

"Rose. Rose, you're out"

Was she on the floor? No. Yes. Her legs were stretched out. Her back was resting against someone. There was a cold hand around her shoulder. Another one holding her hand.

"... Rose... ?"

A different voice. Who was that? Ara. That was Ara. Pain. The pain was fading. Slowly. Too slowly. Her head was spinning. Was she bleeding? There was a warm liquid all over her. She gasped for air. No, her lungs were already full of it. Her sight was going back to normal.

"Rose, it's over"

"Let her see it" said Glaive.

"That's..."

"Let her see" he repeated, laughing a bit.

Oberon hesitated. Her sight was almost back. Everything was blurred, but she could see. The heat had almost disappeared too. Not the pain. Not yet. She looked up. Oberon. Was she on his knees? He was cold. She looked at her hand. Blood. She was drenched, in blood and some other liquid she didn't recognize. She was still clothed. She looked around. And then she saw it. Her corpse, right next to her. There was a cut on her belly, and from that cut she had been forcefully torn open, almost in two. Her insides had been crushed by something, apparently from inside. She screamed. This time she heard her own voice. She screamed with all the voice she had. What was that? Did she die? No, she was there. She was alive. Who was that? What happened? The position of the corpse, together with how Oberon was holding her... did he pull her out of it? Out from herself?

"Rose! Rose, calm down!" Oberon shouted as he held her tightly. Would that have helped? He didn't know.

Ara was standing there, utterly dumbfounded. She had just seen Oberon tearing Rose open and pulling another Rose outside from her. It didn't make any sense. Glaive laughed. Rose's scream died down, leaving nothing but his laughter to fill the silence.

"Ah, it never gets too old. What a sight" he said, now clearly in a good mood.

"Ara, take Rose to her room. And try to make her calm down. She has no physical injury"

"... oh, yes..." she replied after a moment.

She helped Rose, who was shaking, to get on her feet. She silently looked at Glaive for a moment, then at Oberon. Then they walked away. He waited for the two of them to leave before talking.

"Glaive, I don't mean to criticize you but..."

"I know they have no contract with me. That's why I let you help her coming out. That's enough, really"

"..."

Part of that was true. Hadn't he cut and tore her open, she would have had to tear open an hole in herself from inside, using her nails and teeth. Physically, but especially mentally, that would have been far worse than him doing it from outside.

"Listen, you've never given me any trouble. Eve is quite the bother, but you're not. Don't start being one now"

Silence.

"Anyway, it's been interesting" he said, now annoyed for some reason "Now, I have to get some explanation from Glade. Just, make sure they show some more respect from now on"

And then he disappeared, like a pile of ash struck by the wind. Oberon took Rose's corpse and walked downstairs.

* * *

It was morning. He was waiting for Ara and Rose in the main room. He had prepared something for breakfast, but he wasn't sure Rose was going to eat anything. Ara arrived first. She looked at a certain part of the floor. It was clean. Perfectly clean. They stared at each other for a few moments, then she took a seat and started eating.

"What is him?" she asked while biting a brioche "And why didn't you warn us clearly about... that? I don't know what it was that happened to Rose, but..."

"I couldn't. Your contract is with Eve, and mine doesn't allow me to talk in details about Glaive with someone not directly involved with him. Though you are now"

"Is your contract so important?"

"I think it's better if we wait for Rose to have this conversation. I'd rather not have to repeat it"

"... sure..."

And then, silence. For a good ten minutes, after which Rose arrived. She casually walked to the table, took a seat and started eating. She seemed... almost fine. She had bags under her eyes, and she was still a bit pale, but nothing more. She noticed Ara was staring at her.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"I... I thought I would have been the one asking that question"

"How am I supposed to feel?"

"... sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"I spent most of the night in the bathroom. It was... worse than I had expected. I think I almost threw up my own stomach at some point"

"That's a normal reaction" said Oberon.

"Normal? You mean it's normal for him to do things like that?!" almost shouted Ara.

"I did warn you not to upset him"

"You could have been a bit clearer about the consequences" said Rose.

"As I've told Ara earlier, my contract doesn't allow me to talk in details about Glaive with someone not directly involved with him. Though you both are now"

"Say, where is my... the corpse?"

"I've buried it in the basement"

"In the basement?" asked Ara.

"There's a graveyard there"

"Of course"

What to do now? Change subject? Ophelia was the one good at talking, and even then Ferdinand was better than him at it. But neither of them were there anymore.

"... can you two dance?" Oberon asked.

A brief silence. Ara and Rose exchanged a quick glance before looking at him. Then they spoke at the same time.

"... what?"

"There will be a... it's rather hard to name it... a gala? No, that's not it... a dinner. Let's say a meeting of sort, with those working at the other venues. It should be next week, but it may be anticipated. And it's a... tradition of ours, for the newcomers to dance with the oldest members. That is, if you still want to work here. Given your contract, you can leave whenever you want"

"Right, the contract" said Ara "What does your contract say?"

"It's simple. Aside from not letting anything out of the books for too long, I have to repair the system if it breaks -it doesn't happen that often, but it still happens-, and provide help at the other venues when needed. I'm not allowed to commit suicide, nor to let myself be killed. I'm not allowed not to treat an injury of any kind if it is an obstacle to the execution of the job. I must not hinder the other librarians. I'm not allowed to leave the libraries for any reason, unless Glaive says otherwise. If he gives dispositions, I am to follow them. I'm not allowed to speak about him with someone not directly involved with him. I can change the inside of the house however I like, but altering anything else can be done only with his consent. My body will not age beyond the point at which it's at his best conditions, and if my body had already aged beyond that point when I signed the contract it will go back to it. Well, this last part doesn't really apply to me, given my nature. That's about it. Oh, right. I'm not allowed to go inside the books. If Glaive breaks his part of the contract, I will no longer have to respect mine"

"His part?"

"You can say that's a different paper"

"That's... you can't leave? Never?"

"Never. Mine is... you could call it a basic contract. All the librarians have signed one like this. Except you two"

"... how long have you been here?"

"Three thousand four hundred sixteen years. More or less"

"Bloody hell, you're that old?!" almost shouted Rose.

"I'm far from being the oldest among the librarians"

"... why? What in the world made you sign that contract?" asked Ara.

"That's something you should ask the mistress"

"Sure... wait, other venues?"

"Yes. There are four in total"

"And are they all... like this one?"

"The only thing in common is the presence of the linker and of the books"

"And... how many librarians are there?"

"Counting the three of us, twelve"

A brief silence. Maybe too brief to really be considered silence.

"Not to change subject, but what do you two think to do now?"

"What do you mean?"

"Given what happened yesterday, I wouldn't be surprised if you decided to leave. Al least you, Rose"

"Well..."

"I won't" the blonde replied immediately "I'll stay here, I don't even need to think about it. What happened yesterday was... I'll just try not to make it happen again"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes"

Truth is, she didn't really have a choice. She'd have had to tell them, or at least him, about it someday. But not that day.

"What about you, then?" he asked, turning to Ara.

"I... well, I think I'll stay here too. For now, at least"

For a moment, a single instant, Oberon smiled. Did they notice it? Maybe he hadn't noticed it himself. And then, the table cracked, and from the fissure came a gust of wind which then assembled into Glaive. Ara and Rose instinctively stepped back, while Oberon knelt down. He faked a cough to get the two girls's attention and gestured them to imitate him. Reluctantly, especially Rose, they both knelt down.

"You're all here, nice. Oberon" he said as he gestured him -and only him- to stand up "The meeting has been anticipated. It will be tomorrow night, at nine. As for you two..." he continued while looking at Ara and Rose "... get some good clothes, would you?"

He snapped two fingers, and two of the wardrobes trembled for a moment.

"I'll inform Eve. And you" he said as he turned towards Ara "Leave the worm here. I don't want any infant there" he told her before fading away, as if someone had cancelled him with an eraser. The crack in the table was gone.

"... does he always appear like this?"

"Yes" Oberon replied as he sat down again "This brings us back to the previous point"

Rose and Ara sat down.

"So, can you dance?"

* * *

 **Eighth out.**

 **Writing the self-birth scene was something I'd been looking forward to for quite a while.**


	9. The Gathering

**The Gathering  
**

It had been almost a day and a half since Glaive told them the meeting had been anticipated. Aside from bringing a pack of floating, two headed snakes back to the book they came out of, Ara and Rose spent most of their time preparing for the evening. Truth be told, they had both already been to that sort of events at least once, but they really couldn't bring themselves to believe that the one they were going to was going to be normal. Rose wasn't exactly a great dancer, but she was at least able to let someone guide her. Ara, on the other hand, had spent most of the last thirteen hours stepping on Oberon's feet. Actually, that's what they were still doing. She did make progress: she went from stepping on him three of four times a minute to doing so only once every two or so minutes.

"Ah, sorry!"

"Why are you so nervous? It's just a ball" he replied. A normal person would have probably ended up with at least a broken foot by that point.

"I... ehm, I don't know..."

"Take a deep breath, try to calm down a bit. There, like that. Now, let's try again"

"Is it really necessary?"

"Technically speaking no, but it would be a rather bad way to present yourself to the others. While you will most likely see most of them only once a year, they're still colleagues"

"Sigh"

Oberon grabbed her left hand and placed his one around her waist.

"One, two, three"

Ara made a new personal record. Four minutes.

"Well, Ciel is better at this than me" he said "So this much is probably fine. Besides, nobody expects you to be a great dancer. As long as you don't trip on yourself it should be fine"

"... why didn't you tell me that, like, four hours ago?"

"Because you wouldn't have spent the last four hours practicing"

Ara sighed and lowered her gaze, unable to respond to that brutally true statement.

"I guess I'll go take a shower now" she said as she walked off to her room.

At the same time, Rose walked in from the other door. She was wearing a towel, and her hair was still a bit wet.

"Oh, you're done I see"

"Finally" Ara commented before leaving.

"... I guess she doesn't like dancing"

"I think it's more about having to dance in front of others" said Oberon.

Rose walked to one of the two wardrobes which shaked when Glaive snapped his fingers the previous morning, and opened it. It was full of clothes and dresses. Unlike Ara, she had yet to decide what to wear.

"I kind of hate to say it, but Glaive has some nice taste when it comes to clothing. Given how he dresses, it's probably one of the last things I would have expected from him"

Oberon decided not to tell her the real reason why those clothes were all to her liking. Instead, he simply walked away.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To change clothes"

A brief silence.

"... you know, I thought you would have kept those on. I mean, they do look rather... formal"

"You think so?"

"Well, kind of"

Oberon looked at himself for a second or two.

"I really don't think so"

"I admit, now I'm quite curious to see what you're going to wear"

A couple of hours went by. Ara was standing in the main room alone. Her hairstyle was her usual one, with the only difference being that she had a rose-shaped red hair clip on the upper left of her forehead, while the spherical clip she usually wore got replaced by a darker one. She was wearing a white, slightly frilly dress whose length wasn't greater than the combined one of her usual dress and skirt. This one had a black underskirt, as well as a small, black fabric triangle covering a good part of her cleavage and a black fake coat sewed on it, which only covered her sides, slightly decorated, her shoulders and her back, where it was noticeably longer. It's inner side was orange. She was wearing her usual pantyhose, though this time she also had, for some reason, two chokers on each leg, around her ankles. As for her shoes, they were rather similar to dance shoes. On her arms were two white fabric, somewhat puffy armbands, while on her wrists she had black, fabric bracelets , the left one partially covering the hand. Oberon had told her and Rose that, if they had anything they weren't sure to bring along, to put it in two wardrobe he had indicated them in their respective rooms, and to knock on said wardrobes once for each thing they had put inside. In particular, he told them to leave their weapons there. Just in case.

 _I hope this one isn't too frilly..._

 _This is nowhere near too frilly, Ara._

Then, Rose walked in. Her outfit was... well, completely different from Ara's. She was wearing goggles -why, Ara had no idea- as an hairclip, and had tied her hair in an high ponytail behind her head. She was wearing a tight, form fitting, black top which completely covered her neck and chest but left her arms and armpits, as well as her belly, her sides and the lower part of her back, completely exposed. There was a yellow, rose-shaped ornament on the upper right of it. On her arms were long, black gloves which didn't actually cover her hands, with three rounds of what resembled white bandages around her elbows. As for her legs, they were covered by black, rather tight trousers, with three of four white, loose belts around her waist. On the back of her trousers was what looked like the shorter version of a mantle, black on the outer side and yellow on the inner one. She was wearing black, high boots with medium heels and white on the upper end.

"Well, that's... different" Ara commented.

"Truth be told" Rose replied "I'm not sure this is fitting for the occasion, but since Glaive put it there it should be ok. I guess"

Then she walked up to Ara and looked at her, and for a while. Seems like she was thinking about something.

"... Rose? Is something..."

And then she placed her hands on Ara's breasts before proceeding to fondle them a bit.

"... wron... g... eh?!"

Ara almost literally jumped back as she covered her chest with her arms.

"R-R-Rose, what?! What the?! Eh?!"

"Man, they're firmer than I thought" the blonde said before touching her own breast "Well, I think mine feel a bit better. Though I must say yours are bigger"

"Wait, what?!"

Rose laughed.

"You sure have some great reactions, you know?"

"What are you, bisexual?!"

"Come on now, I've only..." she started replying as her gaze ran all over Ara "... touched your breast... I'm... not..."

Then she stopped for a moment, turned around and started walking in circles, giving the increasingly confused confused Ara some quick glances.

"... dammit, Ara, you're making me question my sexual orientation here"

"I'm making you what?!"

And then, silence. An incredibly awkward silence, interrupted a couple of minutes later by Oberon and Eve, who walked in. He was walking behind her, slightly to her left. She was wearing a white blouse with thin, grey lines running vertically on it, and over it a tight, short black dress which covered her neck, decorated with a dark pink rose -most likely fake, but who knows- slightly beneath it. Her legs were almost completely covered by black, high boots with rather high heels, which together with her dress left only a small, provocative part of her thighs exposed. On the sides of both her dress and boots were two dark pink lines. As for Oberon, he was wearing a black, sleeveless, double-breasted tailcoat, azure on the inner side and with a grey rose placed on the upper right part of the chest. Beneath the tailcoat was a white shirt with slightly pulled up sleeves and a somewhat large neck. He was also wearing a white belt, partially covered by the tailcoat, black trousers and black shoes.

 _I think I see a common element in these clothes..._ Rose thought sarcastically.

"I'd say it's been a while, but I don't think a few days are enough to use that expression" said Eve.

"Can't deny it" the blonde replied.

A few more lines of casual chat followed, which actually helped both Ara and Rose to relax a bit after... well, what happened between them a few minutes earlier.

"We should get going" she said then.

Oberon walked to the table, typed something on it then got on it and helped Eve to do the same. Rose and Ara looked at them for a few moments, then at each other, then did the same. Unlike the previous times Oberon had used it, the table turned into a sort of bubble around them. Everything went black for a moment, then the inside of the bubble started glowing. And after a few moments they found themselves on a transparent, blue bridge in the middle of... it was hard to say where they were.

Behind them, marking the end of the bridge, was the tip of a massive, white branch, at least as large as the huge tree at the center of the library, with no foliage. Ara and Rose looked around. Apparently, there were four trees there, placed in the four cardinal directions, and by the look of it they were so massive that just thinking about their size almost gave them an headache. Far below them they could see their branches getting close to each other, but it didn't look like the trees were physically in contact with each other. As for everything else, the bridge they were on seemed to be floating on the most transparent water they'd ever seen, to the point they could actually tell there was water there only by seeing and hearing the small waves crashing against the bridge. It was night, and there were four moons in the sky, each one in a different phase of its cycle. There was an unusually high amount of stars. Or at least, that's what it looked like at first glance. Those weren't really stars -not all of them, at least-, and they weren't all in the sky. Most of them were floating in the air, some so close to the ground they could be even stepped on. Seems like light was provided by them, in a rather uneven but undeniably suggestive way.

Then Ara and Rose noticed Eve and Oberon had already started walking, and so they followed them. The bridge headed towards a large, dark dome with three rounds of windows. The structure, apparently made of opaque glass, wasn't as far as it seemed to be, and they reached it in only a few minutes. They walked in, entering a long and rather narrow hallway, with six doors on each side, as well as six wardrobes and one more door on the opposite end. The floating little starts were inside there as well. They walked all the way to the seventh door -both Rose and Ara noticed that Oberon always opened the doors for Eve-, entering what seemed to be the banquet hall. A large, octagonal room with a round, currently empty table -with a large hole in the middle- at the center, with thirteen chairs and as many chalices, each one apparently filled with a black drink. There were also cutleries, but nothing else on it. There was no ceiling, and the sky was in plain sight. Unlike in the hallways, the little stars were gathered in specific places: on a large, floating chandelier in the middle of the room and at the top of eight thin pillars. Everything inside the room, aside from the doors, seemed to be made of crystal, and only the walls and the floor weren't transparent.

There was already someone inside when they entered: Ignia, as well two others. Ignia, who was sitting on a chair, was wearing black shoes with medium heels, a black, tight miniskirt and a tucked-in, white shirt with a red rose on the upper left of it and sleeves pulled up to her elbows. The upper buttons were open, revealing a black undershirt. She also had a black jacket, but she was keeping it over her right shoulder rather than wearing it. She was apparently killing time by counting the stars.

Resting his back against a wall was a male, clearly not an human. He was a bit more than two meters high, with no hair except for a rather long, blone ponytail, and yellow, empty scleras. His skin was black, stiff and weirdly polished. His head, larger than that of an human, had a shape somewhat similar to a crocodile snout. He had a wide mouth around which the skin seemed to be especially rigid, probably because it took the shape of rather large teeth. He had nostrils but no nose, and the upper half of his body was noticeably larger that his lower half, though not to the point of being disproportionate. He also had a short tail. He was wearing a black jacket with dark green epaulettes and a rose of the same color on it. Under the jacket he wore a shirt of the same color of the flower, as well as a black necktie. On his back was a black mantle, longer on the left and shorter on the right, dyed dark green on the inner side. He was wearing black trousers and shoes. He didn't seem to be looking at anything, but his lack of pupils and irises actually made it impossible to say where he was directing his gaze.

Lastly, there was a woman sitting on the table, her legs crossed. Her skin was pale, with a faint shade of purple. She had black scleras and crimson eyes. She had rather long hair of the same color of her eyes. She had unusually long, pointed ears, the skin shaping a few small spikes on them. A bit over them were two black horns, a bit thinner than her clenched fist but roughly as long as her face, with thin, light purple lines running on them. She was wearing a black, long, form-fitting dress with a maybe too generous slit and cleavage - the inner side of her breast, a small part of her belly and almost all of her left leg were in plain sight- as well as completely uncovered armpits. Her back was naked too, but that probably was due to her wings. Two large, black wings, similar to those of bats: a pair of particularly long, slender arms with four fingers almost as long as the arm itself and linked through a thin, almost transparent membrane. Where the thumb was supposed to be was, instead, a set of four clawed fingers, and by the look of it they could easily act as hands in case her normal ones were already busy. She also had a thin, long black tail, at least twice her height in length. She was wearing black shoes with heels slightly higher than average. On her left hip, right above the dress's slit, was a crimson rose.

When Eve and the others walked in, the man raised his gaze, Ignia turned to look at them and the woman jumped off the table. And got in front of them with a single step. The way she moved almost made it look like she wasn't as affected by gravity as everyone else.

"Hi Eve, Oberon. And... oh, my, newcomers" she said smiling. A playful smile.

"Karis, don't..." Eve started saying, but before she could finish her sentence the woman had already walked past them.

She grabbed Ara's face, pulled her in and kissed her. It took Ara a few moments to understand what was going on and to pull away, her face as red as a tomato. Karis ran her index on her own lips.

"Mmhn, you would be perfect with the right wine" she said, then she proceeded to... apparently savor Ara's droll before continuing "Or maybe a... whip?"

"W-wait, what?!"

Ignia was laughing and sighing at the same time, while the man was simply shaking his head.

"What's up with everyone today!?" Ara almost shouted, at which both Oberon and Eve looked at her.

"What do you mean?" Eve asked.

"Ah, no, it's nothing..."

"What about you?" Karis asked as she turned to Rose.

The blonde instinctively stepped back, but got caught by surprise when Karis's tongue extended for the whole distance between their mouths and entered hers. In the few moments it took Rose to realize what had just happened, Karis's wings had already grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her in for the inevitable kiss. Rose managed to break free rather quickly, and once again Karis ran her finger on her own lips, savoring the girl's droll.

"Oh, you'd probably need more seasoning. And... oh my, I think a couple of ropes would be perfect for you"

"Excuse me?"

"I'm Karis" she said then as she offered her hand for an handshake.

"... Rose" the blonde replied as she rather hesitantly shook her hand.

"Karis" the woman repeated after having turned back to Ara, who showed a bit more reluctance regarding the handshake.

"I'm Ara... Ara Haan"

The two girls looked at Oberon, asking for some sort of explanation with their gazes.

"Karis is..."

"I'm a succubus" she cut him off.

 _Of course_ thought Ara.

"Of course" said Rose.

"You can leave your actual presentation for later, no need to repeat if for everyone"

Then they noticed Ignia had joined them too.

"Two newbies, eh? Can't say it's been a while since the last one" she said as she stared at them "Well, you sure have some rack 'here" she commented while looking at Ara.

"Can you all just cut it out!?"

"I'm Ignia. And that dude over 'here is McGard" she said while pointing to him.

The humanoid greeted them with an arm gesture neither of the newcomers knew.

"The others?" Eve asked Ignia and Karis.

"They should be here soon" the woman replied.

Ara would have walked up to McGard -she was rather curious about him- but Karis was right between them and looking at Ara out of the corner of her eyes and, thought she had known her for less than five minutes, Ara already didn't want to get too close to her. Anyway, a few moments later the door opposite to the one they came in from opened. Four more people walked inside: two of them clearly weren't humans. Of the two who instead were, one was a short girl with rather long, purple hair tied into two braids, wearing a black choker and black gloves. She had light purple eyes, and was wearing a dress similar in design to Ara's, though this one was a bit longer and black with a some decorative white buttons on it. The coat, white too, was dyed light purple on the inner side and had two strips of fabric attached on it, probably as nothing more than decorations. She was wearing long, thigh-high, black socks - a small part of the garters were visible- and white shoes. Unlike everyone else besides Ara, the rose-shaped ornament, of the same light purple of her eyes, was on her right glove rathen than on her chest.

She was having a somewhat heated argument with the other human of the group: a tall boy with long, white hair tied in a ponytail behind his head and a deep, purple eye. His left one, despite having the same color, was clearly mechanical. There was a long scar on his face, running from his forehead all the way down to his jaw, passing above the artificial eye. Oddly enough, that scar had an almost regular shape and was purple, almost glowing. He was wearing a long, black, sleeveless coat over a black, sleeveless shirt with a few white decorations. For some reason, under that he was wearing another shirt, white and with thin grey lines running over it. He was also wearing a dark purple necktie, black trousers and black shoes. There was a deep purple rose on his chest. The two seemed to be having a discussion about the operative system of the library. The other two of their group either didn't care of were too used to it to really pay attention.

"... Add?"

The white-haired boy froze. Actually, everyone in the room stopped for a moment and turned towards either him or Ara. He turned to her as well.

"... Ara?"

* * *

Something cracked. The girl walked up to the door. The sound had come from there. She moved her hand against it, then pushed. The door collapsed. She didn't know what -she was too deep inside to know what was happening outside- but something surely happened. Something most likely related to her. Her cage had been getting weaker for a long time, and without Eun's intromission she would have probably made it out at least a few months ago, but a sudden collapse of the door like that couldn't be normal. Ara's mind was strong. Anyway, she walked outside. After how long? Two years? She looked around. Then, she started walking. Nari was finally free again.

* * *

Add walked up to her -actually, he almost ran- and grabbed her by the shoulders.

"What in the - why are you here?!"

"That's what I wanted to ask you!"

Then three people started laughing. Ignia, Karis and one of two non-humans Add walked in with. His physique was almost that of a normal person, if anything he was quite thin, but he was completely wrapped in incredibly old-looking bandages, which made him look somewhat like a mummy. His face, for what one could tell, was closer to a featureless mask than to an actual face. His eyes, if he had any, were completely covered. He had no nose, though maybe he had nostrils. His mouth, however, was perfectly visible. And around it a bit of skin could be seen too: it was of a rotten yellow. His teeth, on the other hand, were incredibly perfect. If anything, they were too sharp not to arouse some suspicious about what he could possibly use them for. He was wearing a black tuxedo over a white shirt and a black necktie with an aqua-colored rose on it. He was also wearing black trousers and shoes. It was an elegant attire, but it would also have looked somewhat plain without the bands covering his skin.

"'Ya... ya' mean 'ya know each other?!" Ignia asked, almost falling down from how much she was laughing.

"This is such a rare occurrence" said Karis, who was laughing in a far more contained manner.

"Funny indeed" commented the bandaged man, who then walked up to Ara and, completely ignoring Add, reached out to her, took her hand and shook it, all on his own. She noticed there was an incredibly faint, dark blue light coming from inside his mouth.

"I'm Yoru. I take it you are named Ara"

"Ehr... yes"

"Later" Add told him, clearly annoyed by his intromission.

"Oh, no, not at all, boy. You can chat all you want with her later, but it would be awfully rude of you to keep one of the newcomers all to yourself right from the start, don't you think? Even more so because you seem to be an acquaintance of her already"

There was a faint warning in his voice. Add reluctantly backed away. With a somewhat theatrical gesture, Yoru pointed to the purple haired girl.

"This young-looking woman is Aisha"

Said girl, who noticeably raised an eyebrow in annoyance when he said 'young-looking woman', simply waved her hand at Ara who, taken aback by the sudden turn of events, waved her hand in reply. Yoru then pointed to the fourth person.

"And here we have Kizna"

A woman. An anthropomorphic, humanoid rat. Her skin was completely covered by a thin, uniform layer of grey fur, and while her head was that of a rat -a somehow elegant-looking rat- , her eyes were undeniably human. They were of a light, somehow melancholy blue. She had long hair of a dull silver, reaching her shoulders with a bangs covering one of her eyes. Unlike everyone else, she was wearing an hat. A large, black, apparently multilayered hat with two silvery ornaments on the side, shaped like the wings of a dragon and with two rather large holes on the front which somehow resembled a pair of eyes. She was wearing a long, black, heavy-looking dress with a large neck. The dress reached down to her knees and had large, long sleeves. Actually, aside from the higher part it almost seemed too big for her, and also made it quite impossible to tell anything about her body. There were a few silvery decorations here and there on it, placed with an unusual order, all resembling something of a dragon, be it a tail, a claw or anything else. There was also a row of buttons running down the dress, as well as two small slits on the lower end of the dress's sides. Maybe calling it an oversized coat would have been more appropriate. Around her wrists could be seen another garment, but aside from it being the same color of her hair and looking, just like the dress, rather heavy, it was impossible to say if it was a shirt, a pair of detached sleeves or something else. She was wearing noticeably puffy, silvery trousers which only reached a bit lower than her knees, where they tightened around her legs and ended. She was also wearing what almost looked like high, black boots with a silvery decoration on them, but since they were made of fabric and left her toes exposed calling them boots seemed inappropriate. Her wrists were rather slim, unlike her hands which were noticeably big and long, with only four long, clawed fingers. As for her feet, whose anatomy was completely different from that of human's feet, they had four long, unevenly sized toes, with almost half of their length made from a claw.

Ara ran her gaze on her for almost a full minute, but couldn't find the rose ornament she had come to believe was mandatory for the occasion. And then she noticed something else. All of the ornaments of her clothes were cracked. The cracks were hard to see since they were small, but they were there, and some were also rather extended. And there were sewings on her clothes. The thread used had exactly the same color of the clothes and was noticeably thin, making it incredibly hard to notice.

That's when Ara realized she had been silent for a bit too long.

"Ah, hi -I mean, nice to meet you... ?"

"Greetings" she replied, with a cold yet surprisingly tuneful voice, bowing down a little and pulling up the sides of her dress a bit.

"Now then, who do we have over there?" Yoru said as he turned to Rose, who had been looking at the scene for the whole time.

The blonde walked up to him and, hiding the fact that something about him made her feel uneasy, shook his hands. The bandages were rough to the touch.

"I'm Rose"

"Yoru" he replied as he placed an hand on his chest "I hope we will get along well"

Meanwhile, Add had walked back to Ara.

"We can talk later, in private. There are other rooms we can use" he whispered before going back to, well, arguing with Aisha.

"I guess that is him" said then Oberon from behind her.

"What do you mean?"

"The one you said was convinced of my kind's existence"

"Yes. Yes, that's him" she replied, several different emotions faintly perceivable in her voice.

Ara turned to Oberon.

"You know, I... how to say it... I had expected a lot more questions, with being new here and all" she said, mainly not to talk about Add.

"There is plenty of time for that. This meeting will likely last around ten hours at least, so..."

"T-ten?!"

"Time as a concept hasn't been installed here, so when we go back to the library it will be just as if we never left in the first place"

"Well, uh... ok..."

And then the fourth door opened. Two people walked in. One, who had opened the door for the other and closed it once they had both entered the room, was a tall man with light, almost pale blue eyes, inhumanly long ears, white hair reaching his hips and a single, rather long horn, pointed upwards, on the right side of his head. It was black at the base, and gradually turned blue near the tip. He was wearing a long, black, two tailed jacket, the inner side dyed the same color of his eyes, with a neck which covered his face up to his nose. The jacket wasn't completely closed, and beneath it could be seen a long, blue foulard. The pale blue, rose-shaped ornament was placed on his right hip. He was wearing black trousers and shoes.

He was walking at the right, and a step behind, the other person, just like Oberon with Eve. Said person, however, looked like a child, probably around ten years old. Just like the man, she had long ears. Her white, spiky hair reached the base of her neck. She had two horns, each pointed upwards. They were black at the base too, but the color near the tip was a colder, brilliant blue. Her pupils were cross shaped. She was wearing a black necklace and a black, noticeably short dress -a miniskirt probably wouldn't have covered her legs more- with vertical, thin grey lines on it. The dress had a modest cleavage, and left her shoulders, armpits, upper half of her back and a bit of the side of her breasts completely bare. She was wearing the rear half of a black, unusually shaped overskirt, divided into several, unevenly long bands, each with a small, faintly glowing blue gem near the end. Her arms were covered up to the shoulders by black, lace gloves. She was wearing black, high boots with rather high heels and grey, see-through, thigh-high stockings . She had an apparently bony tail, longer than her legs but not by that much, with a triangular head and the same color pattern of her horns.

There was something off about her expression. She was smiling, but it was... an overly expressive smile. Almost like a grin. And, she wasn't really walking. She was floating. Rose couldn't help but think she did so because she was so short compared to everybody else there. Then, everyone -Ara and Rose with a small delay- slightly bowed down.

"Lady Luciela and Ciel, her servant" Oberon whispered to Ara.

Luciela looked at all the presents, then spoke.

"It's nice to see we're all still here" she said, her voice sounding faintly euphoric "And we even have new faces"

She then floated to the table, followed by the man. He pulled back a chair for her, and then everyone took a seat, though no one actually sat down. Ara and Rose couldn't help but look at Oberon doing the same thing for Eve. Then, four shadows appeared on the floor inside the table. Four people emerged from them, one being Glaive. The other three seemed to be different versions of him: the one in front of him was clearly a woman, while the one on his left was a child and the one on his right an old woman. They all had similar hair, identical eyes, wore basically the same clothes and mask, and they all kept their right arm behind their back. But while the child still had both of his eyes, the woman only had her right one and the elderly lacked both. They were all holding a chalice in their left hand. Without saying a word, they raised it high above their heads, toasted and then, somehow, drank the content, even though there was no opening for the mouth on their masks. And then they disappeared. After that, Luciela took the chalice in front of her and raised it. Everyone else did the same, strictly after her.

"To the dream" she said.

"To the dream" everyone repeated.

They drank -what exactly they were drinking, neither Ara nor Rose could tell, but it was bitter-, then Luciela sat down. After her, the others did the same, with the only exception of Oberon who sat down after Eve. The hole in the middle of the table closed, and every imaginable kind of dish and beverage -as well as some which didn't really seem food or drink in the first place- appeared on it.

"Comrades" Luciela said then "Let's serve ourselves"

* * *

 **This came out way, way longer than I had expected.**


	10. Disappearance

**Disappearance  
**

"Let's serve ourselves"

And everyone started eating, with Ara and Rose taking only what they could identify at first glance. Also, chatting. People from the same venue were sitting together, but almost everyone started talking with someone from a different jurisdiction. It was actually rather messy and slightly confusing, ten people talking over each other so casually, but not even one of them seemed to be bothered by it, except maybe Add, who was still arguing with Aisha anyway. Luciela was silent. Rose was sitting between Eve and Ciel, while Ara had Oberon at her right and Karis at her left. The succubus fixed her gaze on Ara for a while, then looked briefly at Add. After that she rolled her head back a little, as if she was trying to remember something, and then for some reason she laughed softly, at which point Ara decided to talk to her.

"Did I do something funny?"

"Oh, no, I was just thinking" she replied as she pointed to Add with her tail "He was your first wasn't he?" she asked with a playful smile and an amused voice.

Ara turned red but managed to keep her voice down. Mainly because she almost choked on what she was eating.

"H-how do you know?!"

Karis moved her wings a bit before replying.

"I'd tasted him too when he joined our little group" she said as she brought an index to her lips "And when I tasted you I realized it" she told her as she poked Ara's forehead with her tail "I told you what I am, you shouldn't be surprised shouldn't you?"

"Ah..."

"Karis, don't intrude on her private life" said Oberon, who had been talking with McGard up to a few moments earlier.

"Oh, right. Newcomers still have one"

"If it isn't a bother, would you two tell us what's your title?" asked then Yoru.

"Title?" replied Rose.

"They don't have one. Technically speaking, their contract is with me, not with Glaive" said Eve.

For a brief, an incredibly brief moment, everyone went silent. Then Ignia bursted out laughing, to the point McGard had to keep her from falling from her chair.

"Ahahahahahaha! I knew you were on bad terms with him but oh man! I can't even begin to imagine how mad he got at you! Like, what the freakin' hell were you thinking?!"

"Mind your words" said Oberon.

"Let her be, I'm used to this child's manners" Eve told him.

"Ah, there she goes again" was Ignia's reply.

"Wait, what's this title Yoru mentioned?"

"When we sign the contract we get assigned a title, something to represent our previous life. It's something that loses meaning rather quickly, but the Masked like to use it from time to time" explained McGard. His voice was less human than both Ara and Rose had expected.

"Oh, I see"

"It wasn't thoughtful of you to do something like this" Luciela said to Eve. The moment she spoke, everyone else went silent.

"Had it been a violation of the contract, I would no longer be here" she replied as she brought an hand to her throat "Though there were still... consequences"

Oberon fixed his gaze on Eve's neck.

"I'm not saying you did wrong" Luciela replied as she looked at Ciel out of the corner of her eye.

A brief silence, then everything went back to normal. Ara and Rose noticed that there were no empty plates nor bottles on the table, and shortly after saw that each one refilled on its own once empty. Then they also realized that, despite having already eaten quite a lot, they really didn't feel full. It's not that they were hungry, they simply felt like they could still keep eating. And since the fact wasn't really any more surprising than other things they'd seen in the last few days and the food tasted great, they kept eating, eventually asking what some of the dishes and drinks were, and sometimes earning a reply they both would have rather not receive. After a while, they heard Aisha asking something to Karis. Apparently she and Add were done arguing.

"Say, do you have any specimens to lend me? I've almost run out of them"

"Sure, sweetie" she replied

"Specimens of what?" asked Ara.

"It's a bit early for you to know, I would say" replied Yoru.

"Now I'm curious too" said Rose.

"I can show you my breeding farm one of these days. Maybe" Karis responded "And since you brought up the argument, Aisha dear, I still haven't gotten anything for the last ones I gave you" she asked, with the voice of someone who is foretasting something.

"Eh? What about the... no, wait, I've already..."

"That was hardly a little taste, dear. Don't make me say the obvious"

"But I..."

"Give it up, 'Isha" said Ignia "She got ya".

"You're the last one I want to hear that from"

"Ah? What do ya mean?"

"You really need me to tell you it?"

"Shut yar trap, flattie hag"

"F-flattie what ?! You little impudent...!"

The two of them stood up.

"What, wanna fight?"

"Seems like you need some punishment, you little impudent cheeky obnoxious unreliable..."

Then Luciela coughed, just once. Both Ignia and Aisha stopped and sat back down.

"These quarrels of yours are getting old" she said "No one here is asking for you two to be friends, but at least try to keep a minimum of composure while we're eating"

"... my apologies"

"... my bad"

And then, another moment of silence. Another really brief one. After which everything went back to normal again. Eventually, some of them stopped eating. Still, it took around one more hour for the dinner to end. Ara and Rose were sure they'd eaten roughly the same amount they'd normally eat in two or three whole days, if not more. Well, among all the things which didn't make sense there, that was definitively one of the least strange, and most appreciable. Then, following everyone else, they stood up, grabbed their chairs and took a couple of steps back. The table then split into four pieces which moved next to the walls, not a single dish or drink falling in the process. Ara and Rose did like the others and brought the chairs to the edges of the room. And, judging by the way Oberon gave a quick glance at both of them, they were most likely about to dance. Ara gulped. And Add looked a bit worried. Seems like he knew how good she wasn't at dancing.

Kizna left the room, Ciel and Yoru walked to the center, and everyone else sat down. Well, everyone except Ara and Rose. The two girls walked up to the two older colleagues. Rose had sincerely hoped for Yoru not to be there. There was something about him which just made her feel nervous. Then Kizna walked back inside the room and sat down. However, she was holding something. At first glance they almost looked like a violin and it's bow, but they were different. The violin was larger than a normal one, and the shape was rather different, unusual even. There were keys on one side similar to those of a piano, though recurved, and there was also something similar to the headjoint of a flute placed so that the musician could blow inside it while holding the instrument almost like a normal violin. As for the bow, there were three small triggers at the base of it, and it had four different set of strings rather than just one. She sat down, took a deep breath, then took another. And after that she began to play.

It was... astonishing. Rather, it was almost like listening to an orchestra. Different sounds merged together in harmony just as they were replaced by different tones, in a relaxing yet intense succession of notes. It didn't even seem a single melody, it was as if Kizna constantly kept changing the music she was playing while never straying from a core element.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Yoru said to Ara as he offered her his hand, bringing her back to reality.

"Yes... yes, really" she replied.

She took his hand and he gently pulled her closer.

"I'm... bad at this" she whispered.

"Oh, there is no need to worry. Just relax, and follow me. Besides" he replied as he gave a quick glance at Ignia "I am particularly skilled at leading"

Ara gave a quick glance at Rose, who was actually relieved to not have to dance with Yoru, and Ciel, then sighed softly and, just as she had been told, let Yoru lead her. Even a neophyte like her could tell he was a good dancer, a very good one, though a bit creepy when looked at from that close. Still, her movements were a bit clunky, or rather hesitant. Mainly because she was focusing too much on the gaze of the others, to the point she wasn't even paying much attention to the music. Then, somehow, she started to move in a noticeably more spontaneous way. Actually, it almost didn't even seem like it was the same person dancing. Add frowned. A few others shook their heads, laughed softly or sighed. Ara noticed something wasn't exactly right. There was something pulling her limbs. Granted, she wasn't being forcefully moved around like a doll, she was just being guided, but it still felt... truth be told, it was a rather nice experience. Probably because it actually helped her relax. She started paying attention to the music again, and against all of her expectations, time flew by. Kizna eventually stopped playing, and the two couples stopped dancing. A brief round of applauses followed, and Ara simply tried to ignore it. She also felt something detaching from her limbs, as if the web of a spider just fell off from her.

"May I ask you for another round?" Yoru inquired her as almost all the others stood up, some walking to the center of the room and some simply heading to a different chair.

"Ah, ehr, sorry but I think I'll just watch for a while. Thank you for guiding me during the dance" she replied. As for how exactly he leaded her, she would have asked another time, though she had an idea.

"Don't mention it"

Ara walked back to her chair and sat down. Kizna started playing a different song. Rose was still dancing. With McGard. Which one had asked the other one for a round, she really wasn't sure. There were also Karis, Yoru, Oberon, Eve, Aisha and Ignia on the stage. Apparently, Karis dragged Ignia all the way there and... "convinced" her to dance with her. As for the others, Luciela and Ciel seemed to be simply enjoying the music. Apparently, Add was doing the same thing, which left Ara a bit surprised. He had never been the type to simply sit down and listen to music. Well, Kizna's music was on a whole different level, so maybe that was it. Two dances later, Rose went back to her chair and sat down.

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be" she said to Ara.

"True" she replied as she grabbed a glass full of... well, something, from the table and drank.

Karis had pulled -almost literally- Add from his chair and brought him to the center of the room for a dance. Rose noticed Ara following them with her gaze.

"... you jealous?" she asked in a low tone.

Ara almost choked on her drink, and Rose almost failed not to laugh at it.

"W-what?"

"You've been staring at him for quite a while now. Was he your boyfriend, or something along those lines?"

"N-no! I mean... well, kind of... almost? I guess... no, not really..."

"That's one confusing reply if I've ever heard one"

"Right, sorry. It's just... I'm not sure. Things were a bit... complicated"

"Well, I can go on living even without knowing"

After a while they noticed Luciela and Eve leaving the room together. Oberon walked up to Kizna, who had just finished playing another piece. With no exchange of words she gave him the instrument, got up and left her chair to Oberon, who sat down and started playing in her place. Kizna simply stood there, her back against the wall, her face lowered and covered by her hat. It almost looked as if she was sleeping, though she could be heard humming along the melody. There was clearly something different in how Oberon played that instrument, but what exactly it was was hard to tell. After listening to it for a while, Ara and Rose thought that Kizna was better at it than him. Then they saw her talking to him after he had finished the melody. Was she teaching him how to play the instrument? Anyway, none of the dancers seemed much concerned by the difference. At one point, after another dance, Karis brought Aisha next to a wall and said something to her. The two had a brief talk, then Aisha followed Karis, who was also forcefully carrying a clearly upset Ignia with her, out of the room. After that, Add walked up to Ara.

"... do you mind coming with me?" he asked.

"No. No, of course" she replied as she got up and followed him.

Rose, now alone, started to wonder about what to do to kill some time, until Yoru took Ara's seat.

"Mind a little talk?" he asked.

She sighed.

* * *

She had been put deeper than she had expected. It took her quite a lot of time -relatively- but she had almost arrived. She could see it from there. The prism made of mirrors. She had always though it, but something like that being their way in and out could mean nothing but that they both had some sort of problem. She started to hear something. Voices. She didn't recognize any of them though, with only two exceptions. One was Ara's. The other... was that... Add? She almost bursted out laughing, which would have actually been a bad move. Eun didn't know she was out -had she known, she would have already meet her- and making too much noise could have betrayed her presence. Nari had been locked away for a long time, so pretending to be still imprisoned for a bit longer couldn't hurt. Not her, at least. And if didn't hurt her, it surely wouldn't have hurt Ara either.

* * *

Add leaded Ara to the hallway he had come in from, and from there went to one of the side rooms. They walked in and he closed the door. He didn't lock it though. Maybe because there was no key. Maybe because that would have given a bad impression. Maybe for a completely different reason. The room wasn't particularly large. There were only a rather small bed, a small squared table with a single chair, a wardrobe, a small window on the ceiling and a black screen on the wall. Add grabbed the chair, raised it and pushed it down against the floor a couple of times, then pulled it apart into two complete chairs. How, Ara didn't even bother to ask.

"This still makes no sense to me" he commented as he handed Ara a chair "Splitting things like this, I mean"

They both sat down, in silence. For almost five minutes not a single word was heard. They almost didn't even look at each other.

"... you're doing well it seems..." Ara said then.

"... you too..."

Silence again. Add, for some reason, bit his lips. Then broke the silence.

"... so, you have a contract with Eve. Just... what kind of contract?"

"An ordinary one, I would say. I mean, there was nothing which could have possibly made me think about... well, any of this" she replied as she indicated the whole room with her hands.

"No one of us knew what he was getting into when he signed the contract"

"Where is your family, Add?"

"They're fine. Though I haven't seen them in two years"

"It that how long you've been here?"

"Thirty one months"

"And why are you here?"

"Because... I couldn't turn down Glade's offer. ... what about you? Why did you leave Fahrmann?"

"Because I had to. Nari... things between me and her went completely wrong after what happened with you. She did a few... things, and, well, staying would have been problematic"

"What about your brother? How did Aren..."

"I left him a letter and set off when he wasn't home. He would have never let me... let us go, not because of that"

"What did Nari... ?"

"Three people"

A brief silence followed. Then Add stood up.

"Ara, I'm happy to see you, I really am, but... it would have been better if you never came here"

"Why?"

"As long as you have a contract with Eve, Glaive won't do anything to you. Nothing permanent, at least. But if the contract you signed is really a normal one, you are basically free to leave whenever you want. And Glaive would never allow it. Nobody has ever left this... "job", like they call it. The first one to do it being from his venue would make him appear weak to the other three. And he is too prideful to allow it"

Ara stood up as well.

"What can he possibly do to me?"

"... not to you. To everyone else"

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know why Oberon signed his contract?"

"No, he didn't tell me. Or rather, he told me to ask Eve, but I didn't get a chance to do it"

"He... he did it because a long time ago, Eve died. Glaive offered to bring her back to life in exchange of his services in the library. And not only him. Aisha did more mistakes in her life than she is willing to admit: Glade brought her back in time to when she was a child, and let her keep her memories. She was basically granted a second chance at her whole life. Ignia came here because it was her only way to escape a death sentence. I'm here because... because my family died, and Glade revived them. None of these events were caused by those four, but I have absolutely no reason to think Glaive wouldn't act directly to bring you back in case you left. And... well, you can guess what he would do"

Ara looked at him, straight in the eyes. She didn't say a word.

"That's how things are, Ara. I'm..."

And then Ara laughed. An heartfelt, loud laugh.

"A-Ara?"

"Ahahahaha! Just what did she put us into, that crazy girl?! Ahahaha!"

Then she walked forward, grabbed Add by his shoulders and pushed him against the wall, got on her tiptoes and... licked his scar.

"Ah, I remember this as if it was yesterday. Tell me, does it still hurt?" she asked as she laughed softly.

"Nari..."

Add grabbed her and tried to push her away, but to no avail. Physical strength had never been one of his traits, while Ara, on the other hand, was far stronger than a normal person. And since they had the same body, the same went for Nari.

"She got really, really angry after what I did, you know? To the point of using the fox to lock me away. Deep, deep, so deep within our mind I didn't even know what she was doing anymore. Oh, all because of Eun. There was something between me and Ara, you know? How do people call it? Entente? But then that fox snuck inside of us, and since then everything turned for the worse. Ara even started calling me crazy. She even got angry at me! I forgave her for what she did to me when we were young! For everything! Then someone else gets inside us and suddenly I'm crazy and evil and everything! It's laughable, isn't it?! That fox doesn't even know what Ara did, and she spits judgements on me for what I do! While Ara herself had nothing against it until she arrived!"

"In what world are people like you not considered crazy?"

"Oh, Add, Add, Add. If I'm crazy, then Ara is too, isn't she? You know, I can feel her clawing at me, on the back of my head, trying to bring me back inside. It's not pleasant, you know? She didn't know I got out of the little hole they had put me in"

"What do you want, Nari?" he asked. He tried to keep his composure, but he couldn't hide the fact that he was sweating.

"What do I want? Ahahahaha! What I want, you ask?!"

She grabbed Add and threw him on the bed, then walked up to him and got on all fours, on top of him.

"Right now, I think I want to have some fun" she said. For some reason, she was holding her head with one hand.

"You're kidding, right?! You did this to me, and now you say this!?" she shouted as he pointed to his mechanical eye.

"That's because you wanted to keep Ara all to yourself. You're not her type, and she knows it. She never told you, but I know. We can't hide these things from each other. I just tried to made it clear. That said" she told him as he grabbed him and pulled him in for a kiss, from which Add pulled away as fast as he could "When it comes to being a simple lover, you'd do just fine. For me, that is. Don't get me wrong, you're not my type. But you know, there's only you inside of here right now. And I don't even know where "here" is!"

He wanted to hit her. He wanted so badly to hit her. But that was also Ara's body. And besides, there was really nothing preventing her from snapping his neck -or biting off his jugular vein, or whatever she could came up with-, and given what she had just said, hitting her could have easily meant his death.

Then, suddenly, Nari literally fell down on him and rolled over, enough to fall from the bed. Add got up and walked next to her.

"Hey! Hey!"

"Ah! Ahah... seems like... Eun woke up... she was sleeping, that makes sense... no way that fox would have let me out so easily... well then, Add... see you around..."

And then, she got up and ran to the door.

"I'm sorry, Add" she said.

"Ara, wait!"

She didn't listen to him and ran outside. Add stood there, unsure about what to do.

* * *

"What happened?" Rose asked.

"Nothing" she replied.

"If you don't want to talk about it fine. Just know that it's written all over your face that something happened"

The blonde then grabbed two glasses and a bottle from the table.

"I'm not sure what this is but it's alcoholic. I think. Want some?"

"... yes"

The only ones still in the main room were them, Kizna and McGard. The former was still playing her instrument, while the latter was sitting on the floor in front of her, his eyes closed.

"Where did everyone go?" Ara asked Rose.

"Oberon and Yoru left the room together. Ciel... well, I actually didn't notice when he left. Also, Karis came back and went to the same hallway Luciela and Ciel came from"

"What about you?"

"I did nothing special. A couple of dances, some drink, some food. Her music is amazing, isn't it?"

"Yes"

And so they simply sat there, drinking something neither of them could name, occasionally grabbing something to eat, and listening to music. Until, around half an hour later, Ciel walked in.

"Lady Luciela wants us to gather here" he said "I will call the others now. Don't leave" he said before leaving the room.

Kizna stopped playing and walked out, probably to put her instrument away. The four parts of the table moved to the center of the room but didn't assemble. Instead, they left four openings between them, placed in correspondence of the four doors. McGard started putting the chairs in order. Since they had nothing do to -and standing there watching him would have been rather rude- Ara and Rose helped him. In a matter of a few minutes, everyone was back on his seat. Though Aisha and Ignia seemed a bit... tired. Karis, on the other hand, looked more energetic than before. Ara looked at Add for a moment, and turned her gaze away when he noticed.

Then four small, black clouds appeared in the room and moved to the four empty spaces between the table's parts, where they condensed into Glaive and the other three, standing around a meter above the ground. As they sat down, black thrones appeared underneath each one of them. They seemed to be made of stone, with a few crystals coming out here and there. On the left armrest of each one was a chalice. They were sitting in the four cardinal directions, splitting those who worked in their venues in two groups. Rose found their sitting at a noticeably higher height than them rather annoying, but said nothing.

"I apologize for interrupting you" Luciela said to the other librarians "But as you know, this meeting has been anticipated, which means there is something we have to discuss about"

"I do not want to be pessimistic" said Yoru "But the last time a meeting got anticipated was due to the appearance of Nenhlekelele, the Great Anomaly"

"Who?" asked Aisha.

"The worst thing which has ever happened to this part of the Dream" replied Kizna.

Ara and Rose didn't really understand it. Add and Ignia didn't believe in the Dream in the first place.

"We don't know yet" Luciela said before pointing to Oberon.

"As some of you may already know" he said "the tracking system in the east venue broke, almost two months ago. It took a while, but I eventually found the problem. Someone had purposefully tampered it, and in a worryingly efficient way. After having repaired the system, a full-scale scansion of the library was launched. The scansion ended this afternoon, and the results were anything but predictable"

He could hardly believe what he was about to say. It was something with absolutely no precedent. Rather, it was something nobody had ever even thought about.

"An amount of ink equal to that of nine hundred seventy four books at the peak of their existence has completely disappeared from the library, without leaving a trace"

* * *

 **Tenth done. This one came out different than how I had first planned it, I thought I could describe a few more of their activities but seems like that would have taken too long. I'll do it in another chapter, probably.**

 **See you around.**


	11. The Snake and the Slime

**The Snake and the Slime  
**

"... you mean there is no trace of it flowing to a different part of the Dream?" asked Luciela.

Oberon nodded.

"Come on now, that ain't possible" said Ignia "You sure the system hasn't mess'd up somethin'?"

"It had been repaired right before starting the scansion"

"Well, something must have gone south somewhere" she insisted.

"Cut it out, Ignia" McGard told her.

She was the only one who could possibly doubt his words. Everyone else had been there long enough to know that argument was not one which could be joked about. Ignia, on the other hand, had been there for less than four centuries, which was a rather small amount of time for them. Ara, Rose and Add, instead, had been there for such a short period that they couldn't even really understand how severe what Oberon had just said was.

"Is this the work of an Anomaly?" asked Karis.

"Unlikely. Even if one managed to somehow tamper the system, at least its appearance would have been registered" replied Ciel.

"There have been no Anomalies appearing in the east in the last four months"

"Is there a reason this happened only in your venue, I wonder" said then Yoru.

"We don't know yet if it has only happened there" said McGard "It is possible the same thing happened in the south venue. We'll have the answer to that within a week"

"Then why only in those two areas?" said Luciela.

"Maybe because they were the two easiest to target for something like this" commented Add "Up until recently, Oberon was alone in the east, which meant he had a relatively large load of work and couldn't spend all his time trying to fix the system. The south has no clear... weakness on this side, but compared to the other two venue it makes for an easier target too. The north one has lady Luciela, who is by far the strongest of us. As for the west, with both me and purpley there repairing the system would have taken three of four days at most"

"Purpley?" Aisha asked, annoyed.

"Makes sense" said Yoru.

"Aren't we making too many assumptions?" inquired then Eve "We aren't even sure that what happened in the east venue happened in the south too"

"That is almost irrelevant though. The real problem is what happened to the ink. Who is behind this and how he did it isn't that important in comparison" replied Karis.

"Nine hundred seventy four books... isn't this number too convenient? This fact has no precedents, but the amount itself is still below what would be considered harmful to the Dream's stability as a whole. The truth is it's worryingly close to the limit, considering it disappeared within two months. Whoever did it probably knew how far he could go" said Kizna.

"Not only that. If that much ink has disappeared, there should be either an incredible amount of Anomalies or a single, extraordinarily large one running wild in the east. Tracking system or not, there's no way something like that could have possibly gone unnoticed. And the scansion didn't find any Anomalies anyway" commented Oberon.

"Which basically means this isn't a simple incident but behind it there is someone who is knowledgeable about the Dream, the System and us?" asked Rose.

A brief silence followed. Then, Luciela spoke.

"Nothing will come out of discussing with so little information available. We will meet again in two weeks. In the meanwhile, try to find out something about this matter. I will get in contact with you personally in case something happens"

Everyone nodded.

"It's a shame our yearly meeting went like this" commented Yoru. He received no reply.

And then everyone left. Much to Rose and Ara's surprise, neither Glaive nor the other three said anything. At least, not until the last of them left. A few minutes later Glade, the one sitting in front of Glaive, spoke.

"First the two girls, then this. Are you getting old, Glaive?"

"And who do I have to thank for one of said girls if not you, Glade?"

She laughed.

"Not my fault you can't even run your venue properly"

"Not my fault someone likes to mess with other's jurisdictions"

"Now, now, no need to quarrel" said the oldest one.

"Should we ask to the other Great Grandchildren for information?" proposed the youngest-looking one.

"Did you lost your mind while we weren't looking, Glanvill? We'd become their laughing stock for the next two eons if they find out about something like this" Glade replied.

"Could this have something to do with the outer spheres?" asked Gladyss, the oldest-looking.

"I doubt it. We didn't spend twelve million years of our existence bringing order to that place for nothing. I wouldn't expect any trouble from there for at least two milliards of years" replied Glaive

"The upper rings then?" asked Glanvill.

"Unlikely, that much ink moving there would have caused such large fluctuations we would have noticed it right away. We and everyone else" responded Glade.

"... this leaves only the other areas of the Dream" concluded Gladyss.

They all turned to her.

"... you mean one of the other Great Grandchildren is involved?"

"Interfering with an area of the Dream assigned to someone else is against the rules"

"We don't know what is happening yet" she replied "Our librarians will reunite again in two weeks. Fourteen days are more than enough for us to do our researches as well"

There was no reply. Simply, they all disappeared, like ashes struck by a gust of wind.

* * *

"I didn't expect them not to say a word" said Rose.

"They rarely talk during our meetings" replied Oberon.

They had just came back to the library. Just like he had said, it was still the exact time at which they had left. Which is to say, late evening.

"I'll take my leave now" said Eve before simply walking away, followed by Oberon.

Rose and Ara, now alone in the main room, looked at each other for a brief moment. There were actually a few things they had planned to ask Oberon and Eve, for example what exactly the Dream was, but seems like that would have had to wait.

"It went... nicely? I guess"

"Seems so" the blonde replied.

"Say, are you the one who asked McGard for a dance? Or was it the other way around?"

"Oh, that was my idea. I was curious. You know, he's nimbler than he looks like"

Ara then yawned.

"I think I'll go to sleep now" she said before heading to her room.

"Good night"

"Good night"

She found Yeji sleeping on the floor, curled up. Ara walked in front of the mirror.

"... Nari?"

 _I'm here. Like always. Well, almost_ she replied.

"I think.. we need to talk"

 _Ah, I missed this. Go ahead then.  
_

"... you're not angry?"

 _Any normal person would be, I guess. But since when has any of us been sane?_

"There you go again..."

 _Just keep that fox away from me. Also_ _, do you mind starting by telling me where are we?_

"... sure"

* * *

Meanwhile, Oberon and Eve had gotten to the exit. There was a yellow line there too, but it was rather thin and neither Ara nor Rose paid much attention to it while they were there. Eve walked to the door and grabbed the handle. She stood there like that for a few moments, then she let go of it and turned to Oberon.

"... how are you doing?"

"Fine"

"Are they helpful?"

"It's a bit early to really say it, but yes"

They stood there, silently, for a few minutes. Eve was looking at him in the eyes. Oberon, on the other hand, had his gaze down. Then she took something out from a pocket and handed it to him. It was a ring, shaped like a chain.

"You said your chain broke. I think this can do as a replacement"

"Thank you, mistress"

"Be careful during your job"

"I will"

Then she opened the door, walked outside and closed it. Then she leaned with her back against her.

"... it's lonely outside here"

On the other side of the door, Oberon was lying against the same door. Right now they were in two different worlds, end even though the only thing between them was a door they couldn't hear nor feel each other.

"Mistress... are you happy out there?"

There were many things they never asked or talked about with each other. He was her servant. He couldn't say whatever he wanted to her. It would have been disrespectful. She was his mistress. She couldn't show her weak side to him. Because of that, they never truly spoke to each other. It was a bit different back when Ophelia was still alive. She didn't care as much about those things, and managed to somehow liven up everything. But ever since her and Ferdinand's death, it seemed like the distance between Oberon and Eve grew wider. Eve was allowed inside the library only for one day each year, aside from when she attended the meetings. Before the contract... before her death, they were together almost twenty four seven. Now, the time they weren't apart was so little, and during the meetings there were all the other librarians around.

They stood there, lying against the same door, not knowing that the other was still there. For how long, neither could tell.

* * *

The next day, everything seemed to be normal. Breakfast was going by as usual, at least until Ara and Rose decided to ask a few things.

"So, what is the Dream? And the ink too, though I have a rough idea on this one" the blonde inquired.

"Even if I told you I'm not sure you would believe me"

"Well, try" said Ara.

"Alright. Then... we could say that the Dream is everything, and the ink is what it's made of"

"Sorry, I didn't understand"

"Same here"

Oberon wondered about how to explain it for a minute or two before speaking.

"Let's say that you are sleeping. While you're asleep you dream something, and as long as you don't wake up the dream persist and develops. But when you wake up, the dream disappears. You may still remember it, but aside from that it's as if it had never existed. You can think about the ink as what the dream is made of"

"That's surprisingly poetical" commented Rose.

"And... the Dream?"

"I can't really prove what I'm about to tell you, I should make it clear. Anyway, that's what I've been told. Not that it's been proven to me either. The Dream is just that, a dream. However, everything exist only within it. Me, you, every living being, every object, every place, even abstract concepts and ideas. We are all an insignificant part the dream of an entity called Azathoth. He's not the only god there is out there, but he is the first and greatest. Where he is sleeping, I have no idea. Truth be told, ours is only a part of a... complex of several hundreds parts the Dream has been divided into. Our job is making sure the ink keeps flowing regularly within the Dream. To make sure Azathoth never wakes from it"

Silence.

"Sounds rather absurd" Oberon then said "But that's what we've all been told at some point, in my case by Glaive. Not that he bothered giving any detail about it"

"... you know, I'm not sure I can believe that" commented Ara "I mean, it's quite..."

"Irrelevant?" said Rose "I mean, even if all of that was true, it's on such a different scale it may as well be a lie, and it would still be the same for us, wouldn't it?"

"I'm not sure I can deny that" Oberon replied.

After that, breakfast ended with no other noticeable events. Actually, the whole day went by with nothing happening. Oberon did disappear for good part of the morning and the whole afternoon, but that's it. It was only on the next day that something happened. They had almost finished having lunch when a few lines appeared on the black screen hosted on the wall.

"What's that?" they asked.

"That's the tracking system at work. Seems like we have some work to do today. Just to be safe, bring something to eat with you"

After lunch Oberon checked the system to know, approximately, where the book which had opened was and, around half an hour later, they left the house. Well, it actually took Ara a while to convince Yeji to stay there and not follow her -though it didn't really look like it, he wasn't even a week old-, but she eventually managed to persuade him to take a nap in her room. The two girls followed Oberon through the Linker, and they reached the west side of what probably was the fourth floor. He started walking, with them behind him. After a while he stopped. There was an unusually high amount of trees there.

"It should be around here" he said.

"Should we split up?" proposed Rose.

"I think it's better if you two stay together" he replied "Let's meet up here in a couple of hours"

"Alright"

And then they went two different ways. Oberon was perfectly used to it, but for Ara and Rose wandering around like that, with no real idea what they were looking for, was still a bit unnerving. Probably that's why he had told them not to walk around alone. Though Rose did find that a little annoying. Anyway, for a good hour they found nothing, at least until they noticed a small flock of birds taking flight from a nearby tree. They walked up to there, and Ara recognized a certain someone.

"You again?" she asked, looking at the child.

"... you know him?" asked Rose, rather surprised.

"I've met him a couple of times already" she replied.

Rewera was standing between a rather small tree and a large bookshelf. Ara walked up to him.

"Isn't it time for you to tell me who you are?"

She had gotten used to the unnatural shadow his hood cast on his face, and she was actually starting to like the way he looked. The child looked at her for a few moments, then turned his gaze to Rose. He pointed at her and gave Ara a rather confused glance. Or at least that's what she thought. It was rather hard to tell what expression he was making.

"She's Rose. A colleague"

The child fixed his gaze on Rose, then pointed to himself.

"... Rewera" he said.

"Hi" she replied, simply.

Then he pulled something from beneath his robe: a couple of... were they horns? They looked like the tips of two dark red horns. What animal they could possibly belong to, Ara had no idea. Just like he had done with the feathers, he handed one to Ara. This time, however, she was a bit reluctant to take it. Partially because of what Oberon had told her. Oberon still had the feather, now that she thought about it.

"So, uh, listen... where are you from?"

"Castle" he replied.

Ara turned to Rose.

"Are all children this hard to talk to?"

"Am I supposed to know the answer?" she replied as she walked up to them and took a better look at Rewera.

"Sigh"

Ara turned back to the child.

"So... fine, I guess" she said as she took one of the horns.

"... goo" the child said then.

"Eh?"

And then something fell down on Ara. At first Rose thought it was water, but she quickly realized that was not it. Ara squirmed around for a few moments, then stopped and looked at herself. A blue, see-through... goo was covering her completely, aside from her head. It wasn't heavy at all, and it barely made any resistance when she tried to move around. It was also rather warm, and not too thick.

"So... gross... it's slimy... and sticky... ugh..." she said as she uselessly tried to shrug the slime off from her body "How do I get it off?"

Rose, on the other hand, was laughing. After a few moments, Ara tripped her with the pole of her spear. Rose fell on her back.

"Hey!"

"You sure laugh a lot" she replied, a bit annoyed.

"So... how does it feel?" she asked, holding her laughs back.

"Like this" Ara replied as she placed her hands on Rose's face.

"Ugh!"

The blonde backed away. For one reason or another, the goo didn't latch on to her. Or rather, a bit of it did, but it fell down rather quickly.

"Still funny?"

"... well, yes"

"Shut up - wait, where did the child go?"

"Seems like he went away" replied Rose after a quick glance at their surroundings.

"Again..."

"Anyway... I think this is what we were looking for"

"Probably"

And so they walked back, though it hadn't really been two hours yet.

"Uh... walking feels awful with this thing on..."

At least it didn't seem to interfere with her sense of touch. Actually, whenever she touched something the goo would get squashed a bit against her, which resulted in it feeling practically like a second skin. A slimy, rather gross second skin. To their surprise, Oberon was already were they had split up. He looked at the both of them and decided to keep himself from shaking his head.

"You did find it I guess"

"In the worst possible way" Ara replied "How do I get it off?"

Oberon walked up to her, then inserted a finger inside of it, on Ara's shoulder. He pulled it back, and not a single drop of it had stick to him.

 _It surely isn't the carnivore type_ he thought.

"Let's see, removing it... I think I..." he started saying, but suddenly stopped for a few moments "You can feed it to Yeji, probably"

Silence.

"... what?"

"It doesn't seem poisonous, and I'm fairly sure Yeji would be able to digest it without any problem"

"And how am I supposed to feed it to him?"

"It's simple, make him lick it off"

Rose bursted out laughing again, earning a murderous gaze from Ara. Truth is, Oberon could have done it too, and it would also have been better since he was inorganic. But Ara would have most likely refused.

"Shall we head back?" he said then.

"What about the book?"

"I've found it already" he replied.

"Ok"

"Say, why does it stick to me but not to Rose?"

"What do you mean?"

They told him about what happened, including the child.

"There are more kinds of slimes than you can imagine, maybe this one doesn't stick to more than one organism at a time. As for the child... I'm not sure"

And then they started walking back. Rose was still laughing.

* * *

A bit more than an hour later, in Ara's bathroom. She was standing there, looking at Yeji. And Oberon.

"So, uh... why are you here?" she asked.

"In case something goes wrong"

Ara thought for a moment to ask if Rose could take his place, but... she would have probably laughed for the whole time.

"... fine"

"You should take off your clothes"

"... eh?"

"They would probably get in the way. And Yeji might have trouble licking all of it off of you're clothed"

"I hate to say it but it makes sense... so, can you at least, uh, turn the other way?"

"If you prefer it" he replied as he took a few steps back, turned around and sat on the floor.

 _How did it come to this..._

And so she started undressing, putting her clothes on a chair brought there from the other room. Oberon's presence alone was enough to make her nervous, and Yeji staring at her didn't help at all. She finished removing her clothes. Seems like the slime really stuck to her: they were perfectly clean. Yeji leaned forward to smell it. It was also the first time it saw Ara in her underwear, so maybe it was wondering if she was shedding her skin or something like that.

"Don't give me that look" she told him.

She took a deep breath, then took off her pantyhose and underwear. Her face was red and her heart was beating fast. The fact that she wasn't sure if it was because of Oberon being there -though he was facing the other way and looking at the wall- or because of Yeji looking at her was a bit unsettling for her. The snake pushed his head against her chest and smelled her. She pushed him back a bit but let him sniff the goo, then placed an hand on his mouth.

"So, uh... l... lick it? I guess..."

Yeji looked at her for a bit, then smelled her hand. That's it. Seems like he didn't understand. Rather hesitantly, Ara mimed the act of licking her own hand and then put it in front of his head again.

 _What in the world am I doing..._

Yeji swung his head right and left in front of it, then opened his mouth and slowly touched her hand -well, the goo covering it- with his three tongues. Ara had previously managed to make him understand she didn't want him to lick her, which is probably why he seemed confused now. He waited for a few moments, and since Ara didn't push him away he started licking the goo, which also turned out to be surprisingly dense. Yeji's droll either fell on the floor or slid down along the slime. Aside from that, it felt exactly as if he was licking her directly. Unlike the other times, however, he was running his tongues all around her hand rather than moving them in a single, large swipe. Apparently, he liked how that slime tasted. Maybe because he was savoring it, it took him around five minutes to get her hand completely clean.

"S-so, uh..."

Ara placed her other hand on his head and gently pushed it up, along her arm. Yeji gave her a quick glance, then gave her arm a quick lick. She nodded to him, though she wasn't really sure about what she was doing. And so he started licking the slime from her arm. Everything was going well, and in ten minutes or so her whole arm and shoulder had been cleaned. Actually, it felt a bit like a massage -a weird one, sure, but still a massage-, and that helped Ara to relax a bit. His tongues were still smooth to the touch, tough she could feel a few bumps every here and there which weren't there a couple of days ago. Maybe they came with his growth. The fact that Oberon was dead silent was also helping her relax. She then made Yeji clean her other arm, then she collected her hair in her hands and moved it to her front as she turned her back to Yeji, who had by now understood what she wanted him to do. Something about the way he ran his three tongues on her back was a bit weird, but Ara was actually enjoying it, against her own expectations. Without even realizing it, she closed her eyes and focused on her back.

"... mmnhh... "

Then she froze. Did she just... moan?

 _No, no no no. Calm down._

Then Yeji finished licking her back clean -truth be told, her armpits hadn't been touched yet-. That's when things started going... well, differently. Ara took a few deep breaths, then turned around. She wanted to cover her breasts with her hands, but aside from the fact that Yeji wouldn't have been able to clean her if she did that, the slime would have most likely stuck back to her hands too.

"D-don't stare at them like that... aaahhh, I'm talking to a giant snake-like creature..."

 _Who also thinks I'm his mother..._

Yeji smelled her again _,_ then started licking her right below her neck. So far so good. Ara then grabbed his head and moved it to her belly. She wanted to delay the inevitable -him licking her breasts-, if only by just a bit. At first it was nothing really different from when he had licked her arms or back, but then his tongues reached her hips. In a matter of seconds, she...

"Ahahahaha!"

Yeji backed away a bit, startled. Ara caught her breath.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, it's just... don't mind it, alright?" she said as she patted his head.

A bit hesitantly, Yeji started licking her again. Ara tried to keep her lips sealed, but in less than half a minute she started laughing again. That wouldn't have really been a problem, if not for the fact that she also squirmed around a bit. Yeji stopped again and looked at her, trying to understand what was happening.

"Ahah... ah... sorry, really..."

"Shall I help you?"

"Kyaaaaaa!"

The only reason Ara hadn't jumped was that she was already standing. She had somehow forgotten about Oberon, who was still sitting facing the wall.

"If you're that ticklish Yeji might have some trouble getting all of the slime off your body"

"A-and what do you propose?"

"I can keep you still. If you don't squirm around that much he should have no problems continuing"

Silence. Ara's face was as red as it could get. She would have probably refused, but Yeji's gaze seemed to be telling her to accept. Or maybe she was becoming crazy.

"A... alright then"

Oberon then stood up and turned around -Ara's face somehow turned even redder and she felt her heart beating even faster- and walked behind Ara, then... well, hugged her, making sure her arms were enclosed by his, and held her wrists. He was cold, but not to the point of it being uncomfortable. He was clearly taller than her.

 _This is awful..._ she thought.

"Well, so... you can... continue" she told Yeji, who seemed to understand.

Just as expected, Ara started laughing again. Maybe because Oberon was holding her down, she seemed to be laughing even harder.

 _She's stronger than I had expected_ he thought.

Yeji seemed still a bit hesitant, but since Ara wasn't -couldn't be- squirming as much as before he kept going. After a couple of minutes Ara closed her eyes, which were tearing. Then Oberon raised one of her arms and guiding Yeji to her armpits once he had finished with her sides.

"W-wait, were are you -ahahahah!"

"You seem to be enjoying this" he commented.

"No I'm not! Ahahaha!"

"Hang in there"

"It easy -ahahaha! For you to ahahahaha tell! Ahaha! Stop, stop!"

Needless to say, he didn't stop Yeji, who did seem a bit worried for Ara. After around ten minutes, which seemed to be an hour or two to Ara, Yeji had finished cleaning her armpits. Oberon gently pushed him back a little and let go of Ara, who fell on her knees catching her breath.

"Ah... ahah... that was... horrible..."

 _My my, Ara, you shouldn't lie about something like this_ Nari said inside her head. As for Eun, she seemed to be ignoring what was happening.

 _Just... just shut up for now, will you... ?_

 _Sure, sure. Have fun._

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Not really..."

Then she realized two things. The first is that all her private areas where in plain sight and had been for a while, the second was that, at that point, she couldn't ask him to go back to stare at the wall. It would have been extremely impolite, at the very least. Her face got even more flushed. Oberon, however, took a couple of steps back.

"Do you need help with your breasts too?"

"No! I mean... no, thank you..."

Oberon didn't reply, instead he simply sat down right were he was. He said nothing, nor did his face show any particular expression, but he was actually enjoying the situation. It was fun. Ara tried to pretend he wasn't there and moved Yeji's head to her chest. He placed his tongues on her breasts, and started pushing slightly against them, probably because they were softer than the rest of her body.

"H-hey, don't play with them..."

His three tongues then started running over her chest. Ara bit her lips.

 _No, no, no, I'm not getting aroused, this is not pleasing, no..._

However, in a few minutes her breath got ever so slightly ragged. And when Yeji started licking her nipples, a soft moan escaped her mouth. Praying Oberon hadn't heard her, she tried to ignore her chest.

 _Why is he so good at this?!_

It actually took Ara two or three minutes to realize Yeji was still licking her breasts even after having finished eating the goo, which also took a bit longer than she had expected.

"H-hey!" she almost shouted as she grabbed his head and pushed it back a bit.

"... so... the legs now... I guess..."

"Are you ticklish there too?" Oberon asked.

"... yes..." she replied as she lowered her gaze "Can this get any worse?" she whispered to herself.

"So, lie down. On your stomach"

At that point Ara didn't even feel like asking any questions, so she simply did so. Actually, she was a bit glad, since in that position at least her breasts and entrance would have been hidden, if only a bit, from his gaze. Not that he really seemed to be staring at them. Then he sat down... on her back. The lower part of her back, to be more accurate.

"... ehm... Oberon?"

"It's to keep you still" he replied as he grabbed one of her feet and raised it.

He then gestured Yeji to come closer and pointed at Ara's feet. Truth be told, Oberon was a bit curious about what the dragon could be thinking in that situation.

 _I probably should tell them he's a limbless drake one of these days._

Yeji seemed to have gotten into the mood for it, since he started licking her right foot right away. As expected, Ara bursted out laughing again. Then, a thought crossed Oberon's mind. He took one of Yeji's tongues and placed it on Ara's other foot. Her laughs grew even louder, maybe even a bit hysterical. After a few moments, he pulled the tongue away and gestured him not to use it. Then, he started licking her feet himself. It was a shame he couldn't look at her face in that position, but he could still tell how she was reacting very well. Ara said nothing about it, which probably meant she hadn't noticed the difference. Probably she was too... "busy" laughing. In five minutes or so her feet were completely clean. Oberon stopped licking her and let Yeji continue with her legs. Ara started catching her breath again.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"How am I supposed to be doing?!"

Oberon moved away and sat down next to her. Yeji was cleaning her between her ankles and knees, and at least that was rather relaxing. When he reached her thighs Ara tried to bury her face in the floor. She didn't want to admit it, but that was... arousing. And then Yeji started licking... well, her rear. Ara started hitting the floor rhythmically with her head in an attempt to ignore it. Which actually seemed to work a bit. Eventually, Yeji stopped. Ara stood there. For a good five minutes. Then Oberon spoke.

"Ara"

"What is it?"

"He's not finished yet"

"It's fine like this"

"Ara"

"... sigh..."

Ara turned and sat down on the floor.

"... is this really necessary?"

"It would be rather pointless to stop at this point"

She sighed again. It took her almost five full minutes to actually spread her legs. Thankfully, Oberon had turned around, which helped her but not as much as she would have hoped. She grabbed Yeji and placed his face in front of the only part still covered by the slime: her entrance.

"Just... oh, nevermind..."

She didn't want to admit it but she was aroused. Yeji started licking her, and Ara bit her lower lip. She wasn't the type to masturbate -not that often, at least- and since she has had sex only twice, or one and two-thirds like she had said, she was inexperienced and not really used to that feeling. Her breath got a bit ragged, and almost without realizing it she moved an hand to her chest and started groping her own breasts. Yet she was still biting on her lip. Though that didn't really prevent sounds from escaping her mouth.

"Mmh... "

And then Yeji stopped. Unlike with almost every other part of her body, he seemed to have taken far too little time cleaning her, at least that's what she though. Anyway, it seemed like he had finished. He retracted his head and looked at Ara. Her face was flushed. A bit hesitantly, she brought an hand between her legs and started massaging her private area.

 _What in the world am I doing... ?_

She bit on her lip so hard it probably was on the verge of bleeding, but either she didn't notice or didn't mind. She slid two fingers inside herself as she kept playing with her own nipples. A small trickle of blood started running down on her chin.

"Mmh... ah... ah..."

She kept at it for... fifteen? Probably more minutes, until she eventually arched her back as her body tensed up. She stopped her hands as she fell on her back, a wave of pleasure running through her whole body. She remained there like that for a few moments, savoring the lingering feeling, then sat back down. Yeji was still looking at her, and she couldn't tell if he was confused or something else. She blushed even more as she placed her hands on his head, caressed it a bit then gently pulled it back between her legs.

 _Aaahhh, just what's gotten into me?_

She inserted two fingers in her entrance and moved them around a bit, then pulled them out. Yeji looked at her, then hesitantly slid one of his tongues inside her.

"Aahh... like... like that..." she said.

The snake started moving his tongue around a bit, and Ara managed to get him to massage her entrance with his other two tongues. She bit again on her lips, causing a bit more blood to flow down her skin.

"T-there... yes... mnh..."

Yeji probably had no idea what he was doing, and Ara felt a bit guilty for making him do that, but... well, no, she had no idea why she was doing something like that. But it was too pleasurable to stop. She started toying with her own nipples as Yeji kept moving his tongues inside and over her entrance. At some point she started feeling pressure growing deep inside her entrance, until it exploded. Her body tensed up as another orgasm ran though her. Yeji stopped moving as she felt her insides contracting on his tongues, but for one reason or another he didn't pull out. Ara took a few seconds to catch her breath again, then caressed him once more.

"K... k-keep going..." she said. At that point it was probably chromatically impossible for her face to get any redder.

Yeji moved his tongues a bit, to make sure that's what she wanted him to do, and since she caressed him again when he did he kept going. Maybe because he was getting used to it, he moved with more force. Ara lied on her back, closed her eyes and focused on her nether regions. She was still sensitive from her previous orgasms, and the stimulation felt even stronger. When she wasn't moaning she was biting down on her lower lip. It was rather weird, biting down that much and that hard on it during... well, something like that, but Ara seemed to be enjoying it. Her third climax came faster than the previous ones, and also felt more intense. She arched her back as pleasure ran through her in two waves, moans freely escaping from her mouth. Maybe because of that reaction, Yeji backed away a bit and raised his head to look at her face. Ara, on the other hand, stood there like that for a minute or two, savoring the lingering feeling in her body, her chest raising rhythmically with her ragged breath. Then she got on her knees and looked at Yeji. And buried her face in her hands, one of which was also wet with her own juices.

"Just what in the world have I done?!"

Then she placed an hand -the clean one- on Yeji's head and petted him.

"Uh... sorry for having dragged you into this..."

"Are you done?" Oberon asked.

Ara's heart stopped beating for a few moments and she froze completely. He had been so silent, and she got so caught up in the moment, that she had completely forgotten about his presence. For the second time. Though he was still looking at the wall.

"Ah... aahh..."

"Please, don't shout. That would probably cause Rose to come here to see what's happening"

 _And I don't feel like hearing you shout._

Ara took a half a dozen or so quick breaths followed by two deep ones before speaking.

"Y-y-you saw..."

"Not really. I heard everything though. Can I turn around now?"

"N-no! I mean... ehr..." she replied as she frantically looked all around her before sprinting to the shower and closing it. Both its door and walls were made of mat glass, but it was still better than standing in plain sight.

"A-alright" she said.

Oberon stood up, turned around and took two steps towards the door. Then he she saw him looking at something on the floor. She wasn't sure about it, but it seemed like he had put inside a small jar something which was on the floor. He left the vial on the sink.

"I think it has split in two at some point to preserve itself. You can feed it to Yeji or give it some sugared water every now and then, if you want to keep it. Usually if you give them enough salt regularly they don't grow regardless of how much you feed them"

"Eh?"

Then he walked to the door, grabbed the knob of the lock... and heard Ara walk out of the shower. He turned around, and there she was, less than two steps away from him. She had an hand on her hip, while with the other she was touching her lip, as if to check how badly she had injured it with her teeth. She had a weird expression on her face.

"So you are Oberon?"

"... you are not Eun, I guess"

"No, I'm not" she replied. Seems like hearing that name annoyed her.

"Is there someone else inside of you I'm not aware of?"

"Ahahaha! Funny one! No, anyway no. I'm Nari. Man, Ara, you really overdid it with your biting. I know you have a condition but still" she said as she looked at her fingers. There was a bit of blood on them.

 _Nari! Stop it!_

 _Come on, Ara. You've had your fun, now let me have mine. Just like we used to._

 _Ugh..._

"Say, do you mind keeping me company as well?" she asked.

"I should go make dinner now"

"Come on, that can wait" she said as she leaned against him "Or are you scared you'd be unable to tame me? Like all the others?"

"That is an interesting theory but no, that's not it" he said as he placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back a bit "Now, if you will excuse me, I have a few things I must take care of" he said as he walked outside, closing the door behind him.

"... he refused me"

 _Nari! What was that?!_

"Give me a break, Ara, my confidence as a woman just got shattered" she joked as she turned around, wondering if she just wasn't his type or there was some other reason he had turned her off. She didn't really like being refused like that. Actually, it really annoyed her. Well, another occasion would have surely come by. And if it didn't she'd have simply created one.

 _I'm his assistant, you can't just go and try to seduce him like that! ... though Rose did, I guess..._

"Oh, so there's something you haven't told me about yet?"

 _It's just... well, a lot of things happen in two years..._

"Sure, sure, no hard feelings. As long as you keep that fox away from me" she said again.

Then she walked up to Yeji. He was looking at her, rather perplexed. Then Nari simply hugged him, with quite a lot of strength too.

"Poor snake, turned into a sex toy by my selfish adorable sister!"

Yeji seemed to panic at that -Ara had never even hugged him, let alone that animatedly- and escaped from her, hiding in the bathtub.

"Well, later I guess"

 _Don't traumatize him!_

Then she looked at the sink. There was a small jar on it, closed and with a bit of blue goo inside of it. When she saw it, Nari bursted out laughing.

 _... really... ?_ Ara though.

"Well, time for a shower"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Oberon had started making dinner. Rose was already there, sitting on a chair.

"So, how did it go?"

He thought about it.

"... better than expected"

He was a bit worried for Ara. Did she have three different personalities? Also, there was a small part of what Nari said which, for some reason, he couldn't get off from his mind.

 _... tame her... ?_

* * *

 **Eleventh out. This came out way, way longer than I had expected.  
**

 **See you around.**


End file.
